Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Christine D., Lisa Reigel,
and the booksmiths at http://www.eBookForge.net






Transcriber's Note: Some typographical and punctuation errors have been
corrected. A complete list follows the text. Words in Greek in the
original are transliterated and placed between +plus signs+. Words
italicized in the original are surrounded by _underscores_.




THE BOOK-HUNTER IN LONDON.


[Illustration]

[Illustration: '_His soul was never so staked down as in a bookseller's
shop._'
                                                     ROGER NORTH.]




THE

BOOK-HUNTER IN LONDON


Historical and other Studies of Collectors
and Collecting


_WITH NUMEROUS PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS_


BY

W. ROBERTS

_Author of
'The Earlier History of English Bookselling,'
'Printers' Marks,' etc._


LONDON
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1895




CONTENTS.


                                                          PAGE
  PREFACE                                                 xiii

  INTRODUCTION                                              xv

  EARLY BOOK-HUNTING                                         1

  BOOK-HUNTING AFTER THE INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING           12

  FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW                                   44

  BOOK-AUCTIONS AND SALES                                   98

  BOOKSTALLS AND BOOKSTALLING                              149

  SOME BOOK-HUNTING LOCALITIES                             168

  WOMEN AS BOOK-COLLECTORS                                 259

  BOOK THIEVES, BORROWERS, AND KNOCK-OUTS                  274

  SOME HUMOURS OF BOOK-CATALOGUES                          293

  SOME MODERN COLLECTORS                                   299

  INDEX                                                    323




[Illustration]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


                                                          PAGE
  'HIS SOUL WAS NEVER SO STAKED DOWN AS IN A
      BOOKSELLER'S SHOP.'--ROGER NORTH          _Frontispiece_

  IN A SCRIPTORIUM                                           2

  LAMBETH PALACE LIBRARY                                     5

  ROMAN BOOKS AND WRITING MATERIALS                         11

  EARL OF ARUNDEL'S BADGE                                   16

  SIR ROBERT COTTON                                         21

  SIR JULIUS CÆSAR'S TRAVELLING LIBRARY                     22

  ARCHBISHOP USHER                                          26

  WOTTON HOUSE IN 1840                                      28

  MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD                                  29

  SIR HANS SLOANE'S MONUMENT                                30

  LITTLE BRITAIN IN 1550                                    33

  CHARLES, THIRD EARL OF SUNDERLAND                         37

  LONDON HOUSE, ALDERSGATE STREET, 1808                     40

  ST. BERNARD'S SEAL                                        43

  MR. AUSTIN DOBSON                                         45

  WILLIAM BECKFORD, BOOK-COLLECTOR                          48

  GEORGE JOHN, EARL SPENCER                                 51

  JOHN, DUKE OF ROXBURGHE, BOOK-COLLECTOR                   52

  A CORNER IN THE ALTHORP LIBRARY                           53

  MICHAEL WODHULL, BOOK-COLLECTOR                           57

  GEORGE NICOL, THE KING'S BOOKSELLER                       60

  THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN, BIBLIOGRAPHER                     63

  REV. C. MORDAUNT CRACHERODE, M.A., BOOK-COLLECTOR         65

  J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS                                 71

  CANONBURY TOWER, GEORGE DANIEL'S RESIDENCE                73

  SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE                                   76

  LAMB'S COTTAGE AT COLEBROOK ROW, ISLINGTON                77

  WILLIAM HAZLITT                                           78

  THOMAS HILL, AFTER MACLISE                                79

  SAMUEL ROGERS'S HOUSE IN ST. JAMES'S PLACE                81

  SAMUEL ROGERS                                             82

  ALEXANDER DYCE, BOOK-COLLECTOR                            83

  W. J. THOMS, BOOK-COLLECTOR                               88

  HOLLINGBURY COPSE, THE RESIDENCE OF THE LATE MR.
      HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS                                   91

  JOHN DUNTON, BOOK-AUCTIONEER IN 1698                     101

  SAMUEL BAKER, THE FOUNDER OF SOTHEBY'S                   102

  SAMUEL LEIGH SOTHEBY                                     104

  MR. E. G. HODGE, OF SOTHEBY'S                            105

  A FIELD-DAY AT SOTHEBY'S                                 106

  KEY TO THE CHARACTERS IN THE 'FIELD-DAY AT SOTHEBY'S'    107

  R. H. EVANS, BOOK-AUCTIONEER, 1812                       109

  JOHN WALKER, BOOK-AUCTIONEER, 1776                       112

  STAIRCASE AT PUTTICK AND SIMPSON'S                       113

  THE LATE HENRY STEVENS, OF VERMONT                       115

  MR. JAMES CHRISTIE, 'THE SPECIOUS ORATOR'                117

  BENJAMIN HEATH, BOOK-COLLECTOR, 1738                     123

  SPECIMEN OF TYPE OF THE MAZARIN BIBLE                    125

  A CORNER IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM                           127

  ALDUS, FROM A CONTEMPORARY MEDAL                         129

  THE FIFTY-SEVEN ALTHORP CAXTONS                          134

  FROM 'GAME AND PLAY OF CHESSE,' BY CAXTON                135

  SPECIMEN OF THE TYPE OF 'THE BOKE OF ST. ALBANS'         137

  SPECIMEN PAGE OF TYNDALE'S TESTAMENT, 1526               138

  JOHN MURRAY, OF SACOMB, BOOK-HUNTER                      139

  TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF 'THE COMPLEAT
      ANGLER'                                              144

  FROM THE 'PILGRIM'S PROGRESS,' PART II.                  145

  CORNELIUS WALFORD, BOOK-COLLECTOR                        152

  THE SOUTH SIDE OF HOLYWELL STREET                        153

  EXETER 'CHANGE IN 1826                                   154

  A BARROW IN WHITECHAPEL                                  155

  A BOOK-BARROW IN FARRINGDON ROAD                         158

  A FEW TYPES IN FARRINGDON ROAD                           159

  HENRY LEMOINE, AUTHOR AND BOOKSELLER                     161

  THE LATE EDMUND HODGSON, BOOK-AUCTIONEER                 164

  ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, 1606. FROM THE CRACE COLLECTION   169

  THOMAS BRITTON, 'THE SMALL-COAL MAN,' COLLECTOR OF
      MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND MSS.                         173

  DUKE STREET, LITTLE BRITAIN, FORMERLY CALLED DUCK LANE   175

  CHARLES LAMB, AFTER D. MACLISE                           177

  OLD HOUSES IN MOORFIELDS                                 178

  JONES AND CO. (SUCCESSORS TO LACKINGTON)                 180

  INTERIOR OF LACKINGTON'S SHOP                            181

  LACKINGTON'S HALFPENNY                                   182

  THE POULTRY IN 1550                                      184

  THE OLD MANSION HOUSE, CHEAPSIDE                         185

  GILBERT AND FIELD'S SHOP IN COPTHALL COURT               186

  E. GEORGE'S (LATE GLADDING'S) SHOP, WHITECHAPEL ROAD     188

  MIDDLE ROW, HOLBORN, 1865                                195

  WILLIAM DARTON, BOOKSELLER                               197

  INTERIOR OF DARTON'S SHOP, HOLBORN HILL                  198

  JAMES WESTELL'S, 114, OXFORD STREET                      200

  SALKELD'S SHOP--'IVY HOUSE'--IN CLAPHAM ROAD             203

  JOHN BAGFORD, SHOEMAKER AND BOOK-DESTROYER               204

  MR. TREGASKIS'S SHOP--'THE CAXTON HEAD'--IN HOLBORN      205

  DAY'S CIRCULATING LIBRARY IN MOUNT STREET                207

  PATERNOSTER ROW ON A BANK HOLIDAY                        209

  JOHN EVELYN, BOOK-COLLECTOR                              212

  NEWBERY'S SHOP IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD                  213

  CHARLES TILT'S SHOP                                      221

  BUTCHER ROW, 1798                                        224

  CHARLES HUTT'S HOUSE IN CLEMENT'S INN PASSAGE            226

  MR. WILLIAM D. REEVES, BOOKSELLER                        227

  MESSRS. HILL AND SON'S SHOP IN HOLYWELL STREET           231

  MESSRS. SOTHERAN'S SHOP IN PICCADILLY                    233

  HONEST TOM PAYNE                                         239

  HENRY G. BOHN, BOOKSELLER                                243

  JOHN H. BOHN                                             244

  MR. F. S. ELLIS                                          245

  A CORNER AT ELLIS AND ELVEY'S                            246

  WESTMINSTER HALL WHEN OCCUPIED BY BOOKSELLERS AND
      OTHERS                                               247

  JOHN HATCHARD (1768-1849)                                252

  JAMES TOOVEY, BOOKSELLER                                 253

  JAMES TOOVEY'S SHOP, PICCADILLY                          254

  BERNARD QUARITCH, THE NAPOLEON OF BOOKSELLERS            256

  QUEEN ELIZABETH'S GOLDEN MANUAL OF PRAYERS (FRONT
      COVER)                                               262

  QUEEN ELIZABETH'S GOLDEN MANUAL OF PRAYERS (BACK
      COVER)                                               263

  THE FRONTISPIECE TO 'THE LADIES' LIBRARY' OF STEELE      266

  ELIZABETH PINDAR'S BOOKPLATE                             267

  THE ESHTON HALL LIBRARY                                  269

  'EARNING HIS DINNER'                                     275

  THE KING'S LIBRARY, BRITISH MUSEUM                       276

  'STEALS A BOOK, PLACES IT IN A NOVELETTE, AND WALKS
      AWAY'                                                280

  'HE HAD PLACED THE BOOK IN HIS POCKET. SOMEONE HAD
      RELIEVED HIM OF IT'                                  282

  THE LATE HENRY HUTH, BOOK-COLLECTOR                      300

  MR. HENRY H. GIBBS, BOOK-COLLECTOR                       302

  MR. R. COPLEY CHRISTIE, BOOK-COLLECTOR                   303

  THE LATE FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON                        312

  PORTRAIT BOOKPLATE OF MR. JOSEPH KNIGHT                  313

  'AN ORDER FROM MR. GLADSTONE'                            315

  PORTRAIT BOOKPLATE OF MR. H. S. ASHBEE                   316

  MR. T. J. WISE, BOOK-COLLECTOR                           317

  MR. CLEMENT SHORTER'S BOOKPLATE                          318

  MR. A. BIRRELL, BOOK-COLLECTOR                           319

  FACSIMILE OF TITLE-PAGE, 'PILGRIM'S PROGRESS,' FIRST
      EDITION                                              321

[Illustration: _Roman Book-box._]




PREFACE.


_'THE Book-hunter in London' is put forth as a contribution to the
fascinating history of book-collecting in the metropolis; it does not
pretend to be a complete record of a far-reaching subject, which a dozen
volumes would not exhaust; the present work, however, is the first
attempt to deal with it in anything like a comprehensive manner, but of
how far or in what degree this attempt is successful the reader himself
must decide._

_The task itself has been an exceedingly pleasant one to the author, and
it only remains for him to thank, collectively, the large number of
friends and acquaintances who have so cordially favoured him with advice
and information on so many points. In only a couple of quite unimportant
instances has he experienced anything approaching churlishness. The
geniality and courtesy of the book-collector are proverbial, but
specimens of a different type are evidently to be found here and there._

_As regards the chapter on Modern Collectors, the author's object has
been to deal with a representative selection of the bibliophiles of
to-day. To aim at anything like completeness in this section of the book
would be highly undesirable, having regard to a proportionate
representation of the subject as a whole. Completeness, moreover, would
be an impossibility, even in a volume devoted entirely to modern men._

_The greatest possible care has been taken to prevent inaccuracy of any
kind, but whilst freedom from error is a consummation which every author
desires, it is also one of which few can boast. The reader will be doing
the author a favour by informing him of any mistake which may be
detected in the following pages. An omission in the account of Stewart,
the founder of Puttick's, may be here made good: he had the privilege of
selling David Garrick's choice library in 1823. The author regrets to
learn that Purcell (p. 165), a very intelligent bookseller, died some
months ago._

_'The Book-hunter in London' is the outcome not only of material which
has been accumulating for many years past, from published and
unpublished sources, but also of a long and pleasant intercourse with
the leading book-collectors and booksellers in London, not to mention a
vigorous and constant prosecution of one of the most pleasant and
instructive of hobbies. The author has freely availed himself of the
information in the works of Dibdin, Nichols, and other writers on the
subject, but their statements have been verified whenever possible, and
acknowledgements have been made in the proper places to the authorities
laid under contribution._

                                                     _W. R._

86, GROSVENOR ROAD, S.W.




INTRODUCTION.


IT would be quite as great a fallacy to assume that a rich man is also a
wise one, as to take for granted that he who has accumulated a large
library is necessarily a learned man. It is a very curious fact, but
none the less a fact, that just as the greatest men have the shortest
biographies, so have they been content with the smallest libraries.
Shakespeare, Voltaire, Humboldt, Comte, Goethe had no collection of
books to which the term library could fairly be applied. But though each
preferred to find in Nature and in Nature's handiworks the mental
exercise which less gifted men obtain from books, that did not prevent
them from being ardent book-lovers. Shakespeare--to mention one
only--must have possessed a Plutarch, a Stowe, a Montaigne, and a Bible,
and probably half a dozen other books of less moment. And yet, with this
poor show, he was as genuine a book-lover as Ben Jonson or my Lord
Verulam. Lord Burleigh, Grotius, and Bonaparte are said to have carried
their libraries in their pockets, and doubtless Shakespeare could have
carried his under his arm.

If all great men have not been book-collectors in the manner which is
generally understood by the phrase, it is certain that they have,
perhaps without a single exception, been book-lovers. They appear, for
the most part, to have made a constant companion of some particularly
favourite book; for instance, St. Jerome slept with a copy of Aristotle
under his pillow; Lord Clarendon had a couple of favourites, Livy and
Tacitus; Lord Chatham had a good classical library, with an especial
fondness for Barrow; Leibnitz died in a chair with the 'Argenis' of
Barclay in his hand; Kant, who never left his birthplace, Königsburg,
had a weakness in the direction of books of travel. 'Were I to sell my
library,' wrote Diderot, 'I would keep back Homer, Moses, and
Richardson.' Sir W. Jones, like many other distinguished men, loved his
Cæsar. Chesterfield, agreeing with Callimachus, that 'a great book is a
great evil,' and with La Fontaine--

     'Les longs ouvrages me font peur
      Loin j'épuiser une matière
      Il faut n'en prendre que la fleur'--

hated ponderous, prosy, pedantic tomes. Garrick had an extensive
collection on the history of the stage, but Shakespeare was his only
constant friend. Gibbon was a book-collector more in the sense of a man
who collects books as literary tools than as a bibliophile. But it is
scarcely necessary just now to enter more fully into the subject of
great men who were also book-lovers. Sufficient it is, perhaps, to know
that they have all felt the blessedness of books, for, as Washington
Irving in one of his most lofty sentences has so well put it, 'When all
that is worldly turns to dross around us, these [the comforts of a
well-stored library] only retain their steady value; when friends grow
cold, and the converse of intimates languishes into vapid civility and
commonplace, _these_ only continue the unaltered countenance of happier
days, and cheer us with that true friendship which never deceived hope
nor deserted sorrow.'

It is infinitely easier to name those who have collected books in this
vast and unwieldy London of ours, than it is to classify them. To adopt
botanical phraseology, the _genus_ is defined in a word or two, but the
species, the varieties, the hybrids, and the seedlings, how varied and
impossible their classification! Most men have bought books, some have
read a few, and others many; but beyond this rough grouping together we
shall not attempt anything. One thing, however, the majority of
book-collectors agree in, and that is in regarding their own generation
as a revolution--they have, as Butler has described it in his picture of
an antiquary, 'a great value for that which is past and gone, like the
madman that fell in love with Cleopatra.'

Differing in many, and often material, points as one book-collector does
from another, the entire passion for collecting may be said to focus
itself into two well-defined grooves. A man either collects books for
his own intellectual profit, or out of pure ostentatious vanity. In the
ensuing pages there will be found ample and material facts in regard to
the former, so that we may say here all that we have to say regarding
the latter. The second type of book-enthusiast has two of the most
powerful factors in his apparently reckless career--his own book-greed,
and the bookseller who supplies and profits by him.

'What do you think of my library?' the King of Spain once asked Bautru,
the French wit, as he showed him the collection at the Escurial, at that
time in the charge of a notoriously ignorant librarian.

'Your Majesty's library is very fine,' answered Bautru, bowing low; 'but
your Majesty ought to make the man who has charge of it an officer of
the Treasury.'

'And why?' queried the King.

'Because,' replied Bautru, 'the librarian of your Majesty seems to be a
man who never touches that which is confided to him.'

There are many varieties of the ignorant collector type. The most
fruitful source is the _nouveau riche_. Book-collecting is greatly a
matter of fashion; and most of us will remember what Benjamin Franklin
said of this prevailing vice: 'There are numbers that, perhaps, fear
less the being in hell, than out of the fashion.' The enterprising
individual who, on receipt of a catalogue of medical books, wired to the
bookseller, 'What will you take for the lot?' and on a price being
quoted, again telegraphed, 'Send them along,' was clearly a person who
wished to be fashionable. Another characteristically amusing
illustration of this type of book-collector is related by an
old-established second-hand bookseller, who had bought at a country sale
some two or three hundred volumes in a fair condition. But they were
principally old sermons, or, what is worse, theology and political
economy. He placed a sample lot outside his shop, leaving the bulk of
the stock untouched. The little parcel attracted the attention of a
stylishly dressed man, who entered the shop and said, 'I'll take these
books, and, say, have you any more of this kind with this shield onto
them?' pointing to the bookplate attached, which bore the arms and name
of a good old county family. 'That box, sir, is full of books from the
same house, and probably every book has the same bookplate, but I have
not yet had time to examine them.' 'What's yer figger for them, any way?
See here, I start back to Chicago to-morrow, and I mean to take these
books right back along. I'm goin' to start a libery thar, and these
books will just fit me, name and all. Just you sort out all that have
that shield and name, and send them round to the Langham at seven sharp.
I'll be round to settle up; but see, now, don't you send any without
that name-plate, for that's my name, too, and I reckon this old hoss
with the daggers and roosters might have been related to me some way.'

'I remember,' says the Marquis d'Argenson, in his 'Mémoires,' 'once
paying a visit to a well-known bibliomaniac, who had just purchased an
extremely scarce volume, quoted at a fabulous price. Having been
graciously permitted by its owner to inspect the treasure, I ventured
innocently to remark that he had probably bought it with the
philanthropic intention of having it reprinted. "Heaven forbid!" he
exclaimed in a horrified tone; "how could you suppose me capable of such
an act of folly! If I were, the book would be no longer scarce, and
would have no value whatever. Besides," he added, "I doubt, between
ourselves, if it be worth reprinting." "In that case," said I, "its
rarity appears to be its only attraction." "Just so," he complacently
replied; "and that is quite enough for me."'

Another type which borders dangerously near to that which we have been
describing is the collector who, not necessarily ignorant, collects for
himself alone. The motto which Grolier adopted and acted upon--'Io
Grolierii et amicorum'--might have been a very safe principle to go upon
in the sixteenth century, but it would most certainly fail in the
nineteenth, when one's dearest friends are the most unmitigated
book-thieves. But perhaps even the too frequent loss of books is an evil
to be preferred to the egoistical meanness of the selfish collector.
Balzac gives in his 'Cousin Pons' a vivid delineation of such a person.
The hero is a poor drudging music-teacher and orchestra-player, who has
invested every franc of his hard-won earnings in the collecting of
exquisite paintings, prints, bric-à-brac, and other rare mementoes of
the eighteenth century. Despised by all, even by his kindred, trodden
upon as a nobody, slow, patient, and ever courageous, he unites to a
complete technical knowledge a marvellous intuition of the beautiful,
and his treasures are for him pride, bliss, and life. There is no show
in this case, no desire for show, no ambition of the despicable
shoddy-genteel sort--a more than powerful creation of fiction. A
strikingly opposite career of selfishness is suggested by the fairly
well-known story of Don Vincente, the friar bookseller of Barcelona,
who, in order to obtain a volume which a rival bookseller, Paxtot, had
secured at an auction, set fire one night to Paxtot's shop, and stole
the precious volume--a supposed unique copy of the 'Furs e ordinacions
fetes per los gloriosos reys de Arago als regnicoes del regne de
Valencia,' printed by Lambert Palmart, 1482. When the friar was brought
up for judgment, he stolidly maintained his innocence, asserting that
Paxtot had sold it to him after the auction. Further inquiry resulted in
the discovery that Don Vincente possessed a number of books which had
been purchased from him by customers who were shortly afterwards found
assassinated. It was only after receiving a formal promise that his
library should not be dispersed, but preserved in its integrity, that he
determined to make a clean breast of it, and confess the details of the
crimes that he had committed. In cross-examination, Don Vincente spurned
the suggestion that he was a thief, for had he not given back to his
victims the money which they had paid him for the books?

'And it was solely for the sake of books that you committed these
murders?' asked the judge.

'Books! yes, books! Books are the glory of God!'

Vincente's counsel, in defence of his client, in this desperate strait
maintained that there might exist several copies of the books found in
his possession, and that it was out of the question to condemn, on his
own sham avowal, a man who appeared to be half cracked. The counsel for
the prosecution said that that plea could not be urged in the case of
the book printed by Lambert Palmart, as but one copy of that was in
existence. But the prisoner's counsel retorted by putting in evidence
attested affirmation that a second copy was in France.

Up to this moment Vincente had maintained an imperturbable calm; but on
hearing his counsel's plea he burst into tears. In the end, Don Vincente
was condemned to be strangled, and when asked if he had anything more to
urge, all he could utter, sobbing violently, was, 'Ah! your worship,
_my copy was not unique_!'

Cousin Pons and Don Vincente are extreme instances of bibliomaniacs to
whom the possession of a book was the supreme happiness of life. The man
of Fiction and the man of Fact were at one in this passion of
acquisitiveness. Don Vincente was compelled by hunger--_mala suada
fames_--to become a book _seller_; and if it became a general rule for
book-collectors to become booksellers there would, we venture to think,
be a very material increase in police-court and, perhaps, criminal cases
generally. Mr. G. A. Sala tells us an amusing story of the late
Frederick Guest Tomlins, a historian and journalist of repute. In the
autumn of his life Tomlins decided to set up as a bookseller. He
purposed to deal chiefly in mediæval literature, in which he was
profoundly versed. The venture was scarcely successful. A customer
entered his shop one day and asked for a particular book, as marked in
the catalogue. 'I had really no idea it was there,' meditatively
remarked Mr. Tomlins, as he ascended a ladder to a very high shelf and
pulled out a squabby little tome. Then he remained about five-and-twenty
minutes on the ladder absorbed in the perusal of the volume, when the
customer, growing impatient, began to rap on the counter with his stick.
Thereupon Mr. Tomlins came down the ladder. 'If you think,' he remarked,
with calm severity, to the intending purchaser, 'that any considerations
of vile dross will induce me to part with this rare and precious little
volume, you are very much mistaken. It is like your impudence. Be off
with you!' A not altogether dissimilar anecdote is related by Lord
Lytton in that curious novel 'Zanoni,' in which one of the characters is
an old bookseller who, after years of toil, succeeded in forming an
almost perfect library of works on occult philosophy. Poor in everything
but a genuine love for the mute companions of his old age, he was
compelled to keep open his shop, and trade, as it were, in his own
flesh. Let a customer enter, and his countenance fell; let him depart
empty-handed, and he would smile gaily, oblivious for a time of bare
cupboard and inward cravings.

_À propos_ of a literary man turning bookseller, the experiment has
often been tried, but it has generally failed. Second-hand bookselling
seems to be a frequent experiment after the failures of other trades
and callings. We have known grocers, greengrocers, coal-dealers,
pianoforte-makers, printers, bookbinders, cheap-jacks, in London, adopt
the selling of books as a means of livelihood. Sometimes--and several
living examples might be cited--the experiment is a success, but
frequently a failure. The knowledge of old books is not picked up in a
month or a year. The misfortune which seems to dog the footsteps of many
men in every move they make, does not fail to pursue them in
bookselling. Some of them might almost say with Fulmer, in Cumberland's
'West Indian' (1771): 'I have beat through every quarter of the
compass . . . I have blustered for prerogatives, I have bellowed for
freedom, I have offered to serve my country, I have engaged to betray
it . . . I have talked treason, writ treason. . . . And here I set up as
a bookseller, but men leave off reading, and if I were to turn butcher I
believe they'd leave off eating.'

There can be no doubt about the fact that Englishmen as a rule do not
attach sufficient importance to book-buying. If the better-class
tradesman, or professional man, spends a few pounds at Christmas or on
birthday occasions, he feels that he has become a patron of literature.
How many men, who are getting £1,000 a year, spend £1 per month on
books? The library of the average middle-class person is in ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred the cruelest possible commentary on his
intelligence, and, as a matter of fact, if it contains a couple of
volumes worthy of the name of books, their presence is more often than
not an accidental one. A few volumes of the _Sunday at Home_, the
_Leisure Hour_, _Cassell's Magazine_, or perhaps a few other monthly
periodicals, carefully preserved during the twelve months of their
issue, and bound up at the end of the year--with such stuff as this is
the average Englishman's bookcase filled. Mark Pattison has gone so far
as to declare that while the aggregate wealth of the United Kingdom is
many times more than it was one hundred and fifty years ago, the circle
of book-buyers, of the lovers of literature, is certainly not larger, if
it be not absolutely smaller. It may be urged that a person with £1,000
per annum as income usually spends £100 in rent, and that the
accommodation which can be got for that amount does not permit of one
room being devoted to library purposes. This may be true, but this
explanation is not a valid excuse, for a set of shelves, 13 feet by 10
feet 6 inches, placed against a wall will accommodate nearly one
thousand octavo volumes--the genius of the world can be pressed into a
hundred volumes. An American has advised his readers to 'own all the
books you can, use all the books you own, and as many more as you can
get.' The advice is good, and it is well to remember that by far the
majority of great book-collectors have lived to a ripe old age. The
companionship of books is unquestionably one of the greatest antidotes
to the ravages of time, and study is better than all medical formulas
for the prolongation of life.

The man who has resolved upon getting together a collection of
first-class books may not unreasonably be appalled at the difficulties
which stand in the way. And what, indeed, it may be asked, will become
of the hundreds and thousands of books which are now all the fashion?
How many will survive the levelling process of the next half a score of
years, and how few will be known, except to bibliographers, half a
century hence? The lessons of the past would aid us in arriving at some
sort of conclusion as regards the future, if we were inclined to indulge
in speculation of this vain character. It will, however, be interesting
to point out that of the 1,300 books printed before the beginning of the
sixteenth century, not more than 300 are of any importance to the
book-collector. Of the 50,000 published in the seventeenth century, not
more than perhaps fifty are now held in estimation; and of the 80,000
published in the eighteenth century not more than 300 are considered
worth reprinting, and not more than 500 are sought after.

In a curious little book, 'L'An 2440, rêvue s'il en fut jamais,'
published in Paris a century ago, there is a very quaint description of
the process by which, in an improved state of society, men would apply
themselves not to multiply books, but to gather knowledge. The sages of
the political millennium exhibited their stores of useful learning in a
cabinet containing a few hundred volumes. All the lumber of letters had
perished, or was preserved only in one or two public libraries for the
gratification of a few harmless dreamers that were tolerated in their
laborious idleness. This pleasant little picture, drawn by M. L. S.
Mercier, of the state of things five centuries hence, is in strong
contrast to the painful plethora of books of the present day. Dr.
Ingleby, the famous Shakespearian scholar, is credited with the idea of
establishing a society for the purpose of procuring books which no one
else would buy; but this society (the 'Syncretic Book-club') could not
have had any success if the vast quantities of unsaleable rubbish which
one meets with on every hand are to be taken into account. Doubtless Dr.
Ingleby would have included in his scope such books as Lord Lonsdale's
'Memoir of the Reign of James II.,' 1803, which fifty years ago sold for
5-1/2 guineas, but which, within the past few months, has declined to
two shillings!

There was a time when even old and unsaleable books had a commercial
value. Before the cheapening of paper, a second-hand bookseller had
always the paper-mill to fall back on, and the price then paid, £1 10s.
per cwt., was one inducement to dispose of folios and quartos which
remained year in and year out without a purchaser. The present price of
waste-paper is half a crown a hundredweight, so that the bookseller is
now practically shut out of this poor market. Indeed, an enterprising
bibliopole was lately offering 'useful old books,' etc., at 3s. 6d. per
cwt., free on the rails, provided not less than six hundredweight is
bought. 'To young beginners,' he states, 'these lots are great
bargains'; but whether he means young beginners in literature or young
beginners in trade, is an open question. In either case, 'useful old
books' at the price of waste-paper are a novelty. There is a certain
amount of danger in the wholesale destruction of books, for posterity
may place a high value, literary and commercial, on the very works which
are now consigned to the paper-mill. Unfortunately, posterity will not
pay booksellers' rent of to-day. Just as those books which have the
largest circulation are likely to become the rarest, so do those which
were at one time most commonly met with often, after the lapse of a few
decades, become difficult to obtain. In one of his 'Echoes' notes,
Mr. G. A. Sala tells us that, in the course of forty years'
bookstall-hunting, he has known a great number of books once common
become scarce and costly--_e.g._, Lawrence's 'Lectures on Man'; Walker's
'Analysis of Beauty'; Millingen's 'Curiosities of Medical Experience';
Beckford's 'Vathek' in French; Jeremy Bentham's works; and Harris's
'Hermes.' Possibly the disappearance of these and many other books may
be attributed to certain definite causes. For example, in the early
years of this century one of the commonest books at 1s. or 1s. 6d. was
Theobald's 'Shakespeare Restored'; but fifty years later it was a very
rare book. The interest in Shakespeare and his editors had become quite
wide-spread in literary circles, and literature in any way bearing on
the subject found ready purchasers.

Just as the disappearance of certain books sends their prices up
considerably in the market, so the unexpected appearance of others has
just the reverse effect. Until quite recently one of the scarcest of the
first editions of the writings of Charles Dickens was a thin octavo
pamphlet of seventy-one pages, entitled 'The Village Coquettes: a Comic
Opera. In two Acts. London: Richard Bentley, 1836.' So rare was this
book that very few collectors could boast the possession of it, and an
uncut example might always be sold for £30 or £40. About a year before
his death, Dickens was asked by Mr. Locker-Lampson whether he had a
copy; his reply was: 'No, and if I knew it was in my house, and if I
could not get rid of it in any other way, I would burn the wing of the
house where it was'--the words, no doubt, being spoken in jest. Not long
since, a mass of waste-paper from a printer's warehouse was returned to
the mills to be pulped, and would certainly have been destroyed had not
one of the workmen employed upon the premises caught sight of the name
of 'Charles Dickens' upon some of the sheets. The whole parcel was
carefully examined, and the searchers were rewarded by the discovery of
nearly a hundred copies of 'The Village Coquettes,' in quires, clean and
unfolded. These were passed into the market, and the price at once fell
to about £5. The most curious things turn up sometimes in a similar
manner. A little sixpenny bazaar book ('Two Poems,' by Elizabeth Barrett
and Robert Browning, 1854) was for a long time extremely rare, as much
as £3 or £4 being paid for it when it occurred for sale. Suddenly it
appeared in a bookseller's catalogue at 2s., and as every applicant
could have as many as he wanted, it then leaked out that the bookseller,
Mr. Herbert, had purchased about 100 copies with books which he purposed
sending to the mill. Even 'remainders' sometimes turn out to be little
gold-mines. The late Mr. Stibbs bought the 'remainder' of Keats's
'Endymion' at 4d. per copy. We do not know what he realized by this
investment, but their value for some years has been £4 and upwards.

[Illustration: _The late Henry Stevens, of Vermont._]

The subject of book-finds is one about which a volume might be written.
Every 'special' collector has his fund of book-hunting anecdotes and
incidents, for, where the rarity of a well-known book is common
property, there is not usually much excitement in running it to earth.
The fun may be said to begin when two or three people are known to be on
the hunt after a rare and little-known volume, whose interest is of a
special character. To take, as an illustration, one of the most
successful book-hunters of modern times, the late Henry Stevens, of
Vermont. Until Mr. Stevens created the taste for Americana among his
fellow-countrymen, very few collectors considered the subject worth
notice. And yet, in the space of a quarter of a century, he unearthed
more excessively rare and unique items than the wildest dreamer could
have supposed to exist. Books and pamphlets which were to be had for the
proverbial old song when he first came to this country quickly became
the objects of the keenest competition in the saleroom, and invariably
found buyers at extravagant prices. As an illustration, although not an
American item, we may mention that when a copy of the Mazarin Bible was
offered at Sotheby's in 1847, the competitors were an agent of Mr. James
Lenox (Stevens' client) and Sir Thomas Phillipps in person; the latter
went to £495, but the agent went £5 better, and secured the prize at the
then unheard-of price of £500. At first Mr. Lenox declined to take the
book, but eventually altered his mind, wisely as it proved, for although
at long intervals copies are being unearthed, the present value of Mr.
Lenox's copy cannot be much short of £4,000. During 1854 and 1855 Mr.
Stevens bought books to the value of over 50,000 dollars for Mr. Lenox,
and on reviewing the invoices of these two years, 'I am confident,' says
Mr. Stevens, 'that, if the same works were now' (1887) 'to be collected,
they would cost more than 250,000 dollars. But can so much and so many
rare books ever be collected again in that space of time?' In December,
1855, Mr. Stevens offered Mr. Lenox in one lump about forty Shakespeare
quartos, all in good condition, and some of them very fine, for £500,
or, including a fair set of the four folios, £600, an offer which was
accepted, and it may be doubted whether such a set could now be
purchased for £6,000. Mr. Lenox was for over ten years desirous of
obtaining a perfect copy of 'The Bay Psalter,' printed by Stephen Daye
at Cambridge, New England, 1640, the first book printed in what is now
the United States, and had given Mr. Stevens a commission of £100 for
it. After searching far and wide, the long-lost 'Benjamin' was
discovered in a lot at the sale of Pickering's stock at Sotheby's in
1855. 'A cold-blooded coolness seized me, and advancing towards the
table behind Mr. Lilly, I quietly bid, in a perfectly neutral tone,
"Sixpence"; and so the bids went on, increasing by sixpences, until half
a crown was reached and Mr. Lilly had loosened the string. Taking up
this very volume, he turned to me and remarked, "This looks a rare
edition, Mr. Stevens; don't you think so? I do not remember having seen
it before," and raised the bid to 5s. I replied that I had little doubt
of its rarity, though comparatively a late edition of the Psalms, and at
the same time gave Mr. Wilkinson a sixpenny nod. Thenceforward a
"spirited competition" arose between Mr. Lilly and myself, until finally
the lot was knocked down to Stevens for 19s.' The volume had cost the
late Mr. Pickering 3s. It became Mr. Lenox's property for £80.
Twenty-three years later another copy was bought by Mr. Cornelius
Vanderbilt for 1,200 dollars.

In a letter to Justin Windsor, the late J. Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps
gave some very curious and interesting information respecting
book-collecting in the earlier half of the present century. 'About the
year 1836,' he wrote, 'when I first began hunting for old books at the
various stalls in our famous London city, black-letter ones and rare
prints were "plenty as blackberries," and I have often found such things
in unlikely places and amidst a mass of commonplace rubbish, exposed for
sale in boxes labelled, "These books and pamphlets 6d. or 1s. each,"
outside an old bookseller's window, where another notice informed the
passer-by that "Libraries were purchased or books bought;" and thus
plainly showed how such now indeed rarities came into the possession of
an ignorant bibliopole. It was not, however, till about 1840 that I
turned my attention to the more special work of collecting Shakespeare
quartos, in which, I may say, I have been very successful. It was at one
of George Chalmers' sales that I first bought one or two, and after that
I hunted for them in all parts of the country, and met with considerable
success, often buying duplicates, and even triplicates, of the same
edition and play. At one time I possessed no less than three copies of
the very rare quarto edition of "Romeo and Juliet," 1609, and sometimes
even had four copies of more than one of the other quartos. Not so very
long before this period, old Jolley, the well-known collector, picked up
a Caxton at Reading, and a "Venus and Adonis," 1594, at Manchester, in
a volume of old tracts, for the ignoble sum of 1s. 3d. Jolley was a
wealthy orange-merchant of Farringdon Street, London, and entertained me
often with many stories of similar fortunate finds of rare books, which
served to whet my appetite only the more. But I was soon stopped in my
book-hunting career by the appearance all at once on the scene of a
number of buyers with much longer purses than my own, and thus I was
driven from a market I had derived so much pleasure from with great
regret. Some time afterwards circumstances rendered it desirable that I
should part with a large number of my book-treasures by auction and to
the British Museum; but even then I retained enough to be instrumental
in founding the first Shakespearian library in Scotland, by presenting
to the University of Edinburgh, amongst other rarities, nearly fifty
copies of original quartos of Shakespeare's plays, printed before the
Restoration, and to keep sufficient myself of the rarest and most
valuable examples.'

Sometimes the notes of a former possessor have a considerable literary
interest, as, for example, the copy of Stowe's 'Survey of London,' 1618,
presented to the Penzance Library by the late J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps,
who has written, under date December 24, 1867, the following note: 'This
is a favourite book of mine. I like to read of London as it was, with
the bright Thames crowded with fish, and its picturesque
architecture. . . . I should not have discarded this volume for any
library, had I not this day picked up a beautiful _large paper_ copy of
it, the only one in that condition I ever saw or heard of.'

As an illustration of the enhanced value possessed by books having notes
written in them by their owners, it may be mentioned that when the great
Mr. Fox's furniture was sold by auction after his death in 1806, amongst
the books there happened to be the first volume of Gibbon's 'Decline and
Fall,' which apparently had been given by the author to Fox, who wrote
on the fly-leaf this note: 'The author at Brooks' said there was no
salvation for this country, until six heads of the principal persons in
the administration were laid on the table. Eleven days after, this same
gentleman accepted a place of "lord of trade" under those very
ministers, and has acted with them ever since.' This peculiarly nasty
little note sent the value of the odd volume up to £3 3s. Gibbon,
writing in his 'Autobiography' of Fox, says, 'I admired the powers of a
superior man, as they are blended in his attractive character with the
softness and simplicity of a child,' an opinion which he might have
modified if he had lived to read the foregoing note. When Canning's
books, for the most part of an exceedingly commonplace and uninteresting
character, came under the hammer at Christie's in 1828, the competition
was extremely keen for all volumes which bore the great statesman's
autograph, and as most of the books contained more or less elaborate
indications of Canning's proprietorship, his executors received nearly
double the sum which they could reasonably expect. Similar illustrations
occur every year at book-auctions.

The idiosyncrasies of collectors might make quite as long a chapter as
that of books which have belonged to famous persons, and it is for the
same reason that we have to deal briefly with each. It is curious that
almost as soon as book-collecting became at all general, the 'faddy' man
came into existence. Dr. John Webster, of Clitheroe, who died June 18,
1682, aged seventy-two, for example, had a library which was rich in
books of romance, and what was then termed 'the black art'; but Webster
was the author of a rare volume on witchcraft, so that his books were
his literary tools--just as, a century later, John Rennie, the
distinguished civil engineer, made a speciality of mathematical books,
of which he had a collection nearly complete in all languages. Dr.
Benjamin Moseley's library, which was sold by Stewart in March, 1814,
was composed for the most part of books on astrology, magic, and
facetiæ. The Rev. F. J. Stainforth, whose library was sold at Sotheby's
in 1867, collected practically nothing but books written by or relating
to women; he aimed to secure not only every book, but every edition of
such books. He was a most determined book-hunter, and when Holywell
Street was at its lowest moral ebb, this eccentric gentleman used to
visit all the bookshops almost daily, his inquiry being, 'Have you any
women for me to-day?' Mr. Stainforth, who died in September, 1866, was
for many years curate of Camden Church, Camberwell, and was from 1851
incumbent of All Hallow's, Staining, the stipend of which was about
£560, and the population about 400. 'Bless my books--all my Bible books,
all my _hocus pocus_, and all my _leger-de-main_ books, and all my other
books, whether particularly mentioned at this time or not,' was the
prayer of a Scotsman of about a century and a quarter ago, and so
perhaps the Rev. Mr. Stainforth thought, if he did not utter
occasionally some such petition.[xxix-A]

Half a century ago one of the most inveterate frequenters of
book-auctions was a certain Dr. G., of diminutive stature, on account of
an awkward deviation of the spine. At that time the appearance of a
private purchaser at a sale was a very rare event, and one which, when
it occurred, invariably met with a more or less hostile reception from
the fraternity. Dr. G.'s first appearance produced a good deal of
sensation. The hunchback, it is true, was rather shabbily dressed, but
'l'habit ne fait pas le moine,' and is certainly no trustworthy index to
the pockets of the wearer. Excitement reached fever-heat when a Wynkyn
de Worde was put up and persistently contested for by the doctor, who
ran it up against the booksellers present (some of whom quickly desisted
from the fun for fear of burning their fingers), one of whom, far
exceeding his commission, obstinately refused to give in until the book
was knocked down to him to his own dismay, and the delight and ironical
compliments of his colleagues. After this _contretemps_ the doctor had
it pretty much his own way; his name was duly entered on the sale
catalogue, and his address was known. The next day our bookseller,
sobered by reflection, called on the doctor, confessed his sin of the
previous day, humbly asked for absolution, and offered him the book at
an immense loss on the sale price. 'If you were,' replied the doctor,
'to bring the book at my door for nothing, I would take it with a pair
of tongs and drop it into the gutter.' It was a puzzle to everyone what
the little doctor did with all his purchases, which were limited chiefly
to classical books. At his death, however, it transpired that he bought
for the various Universities of the United Kingdom. The doctor's son, a
poor curate, entered his late father's library for the first time, and
found there a mass of books, which occupied nearly a month in selling,
and realized, to his delight, a large sum of money.

The contempt with which Dr. G. received the bookseller's proposal is
peculiarly typical of the book-collector. If he cannot obtain what he
wants just exactly when he wants it, he does not care about it. The
book-collector is doubtless too prone to despise everything which is not
quite in his line, forgetting that all branches of literature contribute
in some degree, greater or lesser, to the bulk of human knowledge. No
man can be universal, even if he had the wealth of a dozen Rothschilds,
or the mental vigour and versatility of a hundred Gladstones.

The book-hunter has, however, his good traits, which sometimes require a
good deal of finding, it is true. We need not dwell at great length on
his apparently unconquerable habit of beating down the prices, for the
custom is too well known to require much explanation; but a view of the
other side of the picture is only fair. A few years ago a well-known
bookseller catalogued a copy of the 'Book of Job' at a very low figure.
A wealthy collector, whose purchases were generally closed on the
judgment of a distinguished bookman, asked to have the copy sent on
approval. It was despatched; but came back within a few days. No
explanation was volunteered: when, however, the collector came into the
shop a short time after, he was asked why he had returned the book. His
answer was to the effect that he could not persuade himself that the
illustrations were really by Blake, particularly as the price asked was
so low. A week or so after this a distinguished art-critic, hearing of
the whereabouts of this copy, asked to have it on approval: in sending
it the bookseller enclosed a note to the effect that some doubt had been
expressed as to the genuineness of the plates. In a few days came a
cheque from the man of art for £10 over and above the catalogue price,
and a note to the effect that the illustrations were not only
unquestionably by Blake, but in the finest possible state.

Last summer a certain bookseller sold, after some considerable amount of
haggling, a very fine Missal for £65, which was £5 less than its
catalogue price. A few weeks after the purchaser called and paid the
additional £5, explaining that a friend of his had taken a violent fancy
to the book, and begged to be allowed to possess it at £70. Another
honest book-collector, discovering that he had bought a book
considerably cheaper than an example had been sold at Sotheby's, and £2
less than Mr. Quaritch had asked for a similar copy, sent his bookseller
a present of a parcel of books to make up the difference in the two
amounts.

With these few introductory and perhaps desultory pages, the reader is
invited to the more solid feast provided for his delectation in the
following pages.


FOOTNOTES:

[xxix-A] Mr. Stainforth's collection ranged over 300 years, and, amid
much utter rubbish, there were a few things of considerable rarity,
notably one of only three complete copies known of T. Bentley's
'Monument of Matrones,' 1582, formerly in the libraries of Herbert,
Woodhouse, Heber and Bliss. It included two autograph letters of the
Right Hon. T. Grenville, and realized £63; Anne Bradstreet's 'Tenth Muse
lately sprung up in America,' 1650, £12 10s.; and a copy of Dame Juliana
Berners' 'Booke of Hauking,' etc., £13. Nearly fifty items appear under
the name of Aphra Behn; whilst there are twenty-one editions of Jane
Porter's 'Poems,' which realized the grand total of 14s. The library
comprised 3,076 lots (representing, perhaps, twenty times that number of
volumes), and realized the total of £792 5s.




[Illustration]

THE BOOK-HUNTER IN LONDON




EARLY BOOK-HUNTING.


THOSE who have studied the earlier phases of English history will
readily understand that the terms book-hunting in England and
book-hunting in London are by no means synonymous. The passion for books
had manifested itself in various and remote parts of this country long
before London had developed into a place of importance; when, indeed, it
was battling from without and within with conflicts which seemed to
predict complete annihilation. But the growth of London is essentially
typical of the growth of the nation, and of the formation of the
national character. When it was laying the foundation of its future
greatness London had no thought of intellectual pursuits, even if
Londoners themselves had any conception of an intellectual life. For any
trace of such unthought-of, and perhaps, indeed, unheard-of, articles as
books, we must go to localities far remote from London--to spots where,
happily, the strife and din of savage warfare scarcely made themselves
heard. The monasteries were the sole repositories of literature; to the
monk alone had the written book any kind of intelligence, any species of
pleasure. To him it was as essential as the implements of destruction to
the warrior, or the plough to the husbandman. The one had no sympathy,
no connection, with the other, only in so far that the events which
transpired in the battlefield had to be recorded in the _scriptorium_.
Although London was a place of importance at a very early stage of the
Roman occupation, it was not in any sense an intellectual centre for
centuries after that period.

[Illustration: _In a Scriptorium._]

Indeed, it might be laid down as a general principle that the farther
the seeker went from London the more likelihood there was of meeting
with books. To Northumbria, from the end of the sixth to the end of the
seventh century, we shall have to look for the record of book-buying,
for during that period books were imported in very considerable
quantities; abbeys arose all along the coast, and scholars
proportionately increased. In a letter to Charlemagne, Alcuin speaks of
certain 'exquisite books' which he studied under Egbert at York. At
Wearmouth, Benedict Biscop (629-690) was amassing books with all the
fury of half a dozen ordinary bibliomaniacs. He collected everything,
and spared no cost. At York, Egbert had a fine library in the minster.
St. Boniface, the Saxon missionary, was a zealous collector. There were
also collections--and consequently collectors--of books at places less
remote from London--such as Canterbury, Salisbury, Glastonbury, and even
St. Albans; but of London itself there is no mention.

Scarcely any such thing as book-hunting or book-selling could possibly
have existed in London before the accession of Alfred, who, among the
several ways in which he encouraged literature, is said to have given an
estate to the author of a book on cosmography. Doubtless, it was after
the rebuilding of the city by Alfred that, in the famous letter to
Wulfseg, Bishop of London, he takes a retrospective view of the times in
which they lived, as affording 'churches and monasteries filled with
libraries of excellent books in several languages.' Bede describes
London, even at the beginning of the eighth century, as a great market
which traders frequented by land and sea; and from a passage in Gale we
learn that books were brought into England for sale as early as 705.
With the reconstruction of London, the wise government, and the
enthusiastic love for letters which animated the great Saxon King, the
commerce of the capital not only increased with great rapidity, but the
commerce in books between England and other countries, particularly from
such bibliopolic centres as Paris and Rome, began to assume very
considerable proportions. If, as is undoubtedly the case, books were
continually being imported, it follows that they found purchasers. By
the beginning of the eleventh century there were many private and
semi-private collections of books in or near London. The English
book-collectors of the seventh century include Theodore, Archbishop of
Canterbury, Benedict, Abbot of Wearmouth, and Bede; those of the eighth
century, Ina, King of the West Saxons, and Alcuin, Abbot of Tours;
whilst the tenth century included, in addition to Alfred, Scotus
Erigena, Athelstan, and St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury.

But it cannot be said, with due regard to truth, that London was in any
sense a seat of learning, or a popular resort for learned men, until
well on into the thirteenth century. Doubtless many consignments of
books passed through the city on the way to their respective
destinations.

Edward I. may be regarded as the first English monarch who took any
interest in collecting books; most of his, however, were service books.
They are mentioned in the Wardrobe Accounts (1299-1300) of this King,
and are only eleven in number. These he may have purchased in 1273 in
France, through which he passed on his way home from Palestine. But it
is much more probable that he had no thought of books when hurrying home
to claim the crown of his father. Contemporary with Edward was another
book-collector of a very different type, an abbot of Peterborough,
Richard of London, who had a 'private library' of ten books, including
the 'Consolation of Philosophy,' which he may have formed in London. But
quite the most interesting book-collector (so far as we are concerned
just now) of this period is Richard de Gravesend, Bishop of London. A
minute catalogue of this collection is among the treasures of St. Paul's
Cathedral, and has been privately printed. In this case, the price of
each book is affixed to its entry; the total number of volumes is one
hundred, their aggregate value being £116 14s. 6d., representing,
according to Milman's estimate, £1,760 of our present money. Twenty-one
Bibles and parts of Bibles were valued at £19 5s. Twenty-two volumes in
this collection deal with canon and civil law, four with ecclesiastical
history, and about an equal number with what may be designated science
and arts, the rest being of a theological character. The entries run
thus:

     'Tractatus fr'is Dertti'i de proprietatibus rerum.
      Libellus instructionum.
      Liber Avicennæ.
      Liber naturalis.'

The two last-named are respectively the highest and lowest priced items
in the list--for books of a single volume only--the 'Liber Avicennæ'
being valued at the very high figure of £5, and the 'Liber Naturalis' at
3s. A Bible in thirteen volumes is valued at £10; and a 'little Bible'
at £1. The total value of the property of this Bishop was scheduled at
about £3,000.

In spite of civil strife and foreign complications, the taste for
literature made great strides during the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, with the very natural consequence of an increased demand
for, and supply of, books. And the curious thing is that book-collecting
was gradually passing away from the monks, and becoming exceedingly
popular with the laity. 'Flocks and fleeces, crops and herds, gardens
and orchards, the wine of the winecup, are the only books and studies of
the monks.' The Franciscans, who (like the Dominicans) came to England
in 1224, were expressly forbidden 'the possession of books or the
necessary materials for study.' When Roger Bacon joined this order, he
was deprived of his books. St. Francis himself, it seems, was once
'tempted to possess books'--by honest means, let us hope, although the
point is not quite clear--and he almost yielded to the temptation, but
finally decided that it would be sinful. The plague of books seems to
have troubled this poor saint's soul, for he hoped that the day would
come when men would throw their books out of the window as rubbish.

[Illustration: _Lambeth Palace Library._]

In proof of the theory that laymen at a very early period became
book-collectors, the most interesting example which we can quote is that
of Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who died in 1315, and who
bequeathed his library to Bordesley Abbey, Worcestershire, where it had
already been deposited during his lifetime. Beginning with this
preamble, 'A tus iceux qe ceste lettre verront ou orrount. Guy de
Beauchamp, Comte de Warr. Saluz en Deu. Nous avoir bayle e en lagarde le
Abbé e le covent de Bordesleye, lesse a demorer a touz jours les
Romaunces de souz nomes; ces est assaveyr,' the bequest recites, with
great minuteness, a remarkably interesting list of books. This list
('escrites ou Bordesleye le premer jour de may, le an du regñ le Roy
Edw{d} trentime quart') is in the Lambeth Library, but it is reprinted
by Todd in his 'Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer,' pp. 161, 162. This
list is of more than ordinary interest, chiefly because the collection
formed by a layman gives us a very good insight into the class of books
which the early nobility of England read, or, at all events, collected.
Religious books, of course, formed the background of the library, but
there were many romances, such, for instance, as those of King Arthur,
of 'Josep alb Arimathie e deu Seint Grael,' of 'Troies,' etc. There was
also a book 'De Phisik et de Surgie.'

This collection contained between forty and fifty volumes, in which was
included pretty nearly the entire range of human knowledge as it then
extended. It is well to remember in connection with this bequest that,
at the same time, or, more correctly, in 1300, the academical library of
Oxford consisted of a few tracts kept in chests under St. Mary's Church.

With the greatest book-collector of this period, Richard de Bury
(1287-1345), the author of the 'Philobiblon,' unfortunately, we have
little to do, as his book expeditions appear to have been confined
almost entirely to foreign countries. He collected books from every
source open to him, and wrote of his passion with a warmth of eloquence
of which even Cicero might have been proud. His most important book
transaction, which comes within the purview of the present volume,
relates to the gift by an Abbot of St. Albans of four volumes to De
Bury, then Clerk of the Privy Seal, viz., Terence, Virgil, Quintilian,
and Hieronymus against Rufinus. In addition to these, the Abbot sold him
thirty-two other books for fifty pounds of silver. When De Bury became
Bishop this 'gift' troubled his conscience, and he restored several of
the books which had come into his possession in a perfectly honest and
legitimate manner, whilst others were secured from the Bishop's
executors. One of the volumes acquired in the latter manner is now in
the British Museum. It is a large folio MS. on the works of John of
Salisbury, and bears upon it a note to the effect that it was written by
Simon (Abbot of St. Albans, 1167-1183), and another to the following
effect: 'Hunc librum venditum Domino Ricardo de Biry Episcopo Dunelmensi
emit Michael Abbas Sancti Albani ab executoribus predicti episcopi anno
Domini millesimo ccc{o} xlv{to} circa purificationem Beate Virginis.'

The catalogue of the library of the Benedictine monastery of Christ
Church, Canterbury, in the Cottonian Collection, British Museum, and
printed for the first time at length in Edward's 'Memoirs of Libraries'
(i. 122-235), is a remarkable list of the most extensive collection of
books at that time in this country. It was formed at the end of the
thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century. This library was
well furnished with works in science and history, and particularly so
with the classics--Aristotle, Cicero, Lucan, Plato, Suetonius, Seneca,
Terence, and Virgil. The extreme probability is that London was the
highway through which the greater part of this and other early libraries
passed. If, early in the fifteenth century, the book-hunter in London
possessed few opportunities of purchasing books, he would have found
several very good libraries which were open to his inspection. There
was, for example, a very considerable collection in the Franciscan
monastery, which once stood on the site now occupied by Christ's
Hospital, Newgate Street. The first stone of this monastery was laid in
October, 1421, amid much pomp, by the then Lord Mayor, Sir Richard
Whittington, who gave £400 in books. It was covered in before the winter
of 1422, and completed in three years, and furnished with books. From
Stow's 'Survey' we learn that one hundred marks were expended on the
transcription of the works of Nicholas de Lira, to be chained in the
library, and of which cost John Frensile remitted 20s. One of the
chained books, 'The Lectures of Hostiensis,' cost five marks. From
another source we learn that a Carmelite friar named John Wallden
bequeathed to this library as many MSS. as were worth 2,000 pieces of
gold.

Anthony à Wood refers to the oft-repeated charge of the
book-covetousness of the mendicant friars, which, in fact, was carried
to such an extreme 'that wise men looked upon it as an injury to laymen,
who therefore found a difficulty to get any books.' Of the same period,
there is a very curious anecdote in Rymer's 'Foedera' about taking off
the duty upon six barrels of books sent by a Roman cardinal to the Prior
of the conventual church of St. Trinity, Norwich. These barrels, which
lay at the Custom-house, were imported duty free.

Neither the book-hunger of the mendicant friars, nor the difficulties
which surrounded the importation of books, appears to have militated
greatly against the growing passion. We have the name, and only the
name, of a very famous book-hunter--John of Boston--of the first decade
of the fifteenth century, whose labours, however, have been completely
blotted out of existence by the dispersed monasteries. But there were
many other collectors whose memories have been handed down to us in a
more tangible form, even if their collections of books are almost as
abstract and indefinite as that of John of Boston. During the first
quarter of the fifteenth century, we have quite a considerable little
group of royal book-collectors--Henry IV., Henry V., and his brothers,
John, Duke of Bedford, and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. The last-named
was undoubtedly the most enthusiastic bibliophile of the four, but
whilst his extensive gifts of books to the University of Oxford may be
said to have formed the foundation of the library there, they were in
the following century destroyed by the mob. A few examples of his gifts
are now preserved in the British Museum and at Oxford. His books were
estimated at a very high figure, the value placed on 120 of them (out of
the total of 600) being no less than £1,000. The memory of the Duke of
Bedford's library is best perpetuated by the famous Bedford Missal, or
Book of Hours, perhaps the most splendid example of fifteenth-century
illustration. It is now in the British Museum, where it has been since
1852. The history of this missal, perhaps the most interesting in
existence, is too well known to be dealt with here (see p. 109).

Henry V. was undoubtedly fond of books. Rymer refers to two petitions to
the Council after the King's death for the return of valuable books of
history, borrowed by him of the Countess of Westmoreland, and of the
priory of Christ Church, Canterbury, and not returned, though one of
them had been directed to be delivered to its owner by the King's last
will. The elegantly illuminated copy of Lydgate's 'Hystory, Sege, and
Destruccion of Troye,' 1513, in the Bodleian, is doubtless the copy
which Lydgate gave to Henry V. At Cambridge there is the MS. of a French
translation of Cardinal Bonaventure's 'Life of Christ,' with the note
'this wasse sumtyme Kinge Henri the fifeth his booke,' etc.

Henry VI. does not appear to have cared for books, and it is not
surprising, what with wars abroad and excessive taxation, plague and
famine at home, that literary tastes received a severe check. We get
several glimpses of the dearth of books. In the MS. history of Eton
College, in the British Museum, the Provost and Fellows of Eton and
Cambridge are stated, 25 Henry VI., to have petitioned the King that he
would be pleased to order one of his chaplains, Richard Chestre, 'to
take to him such men as shall be seen to him expedient in order to get
knowledge where such bookes [for Divine service] may be found, paying a
reasonable price for the same, and that the sayd men might have the
choice of such bookes, ornaments, and other necessaries as now late were
perteynyng to the Duke of Gloucester, and that the king would
particular[ly] cause to be employed herein John Pye--his stacioner of
London.'

Book-importation by the galleys that brought the produce of the East to
London and Southampton had assumed very considerable proportions during
the fifteenth century; but the uncertainties which attended it were not
at all favourable to its full development. Book-production was still
progressing in the immediate neighbourhood of London. At St. Albans, for
example, over eighty were transcribed under Whethamstede during this
reign, a number which is peculiarly interesting when the degeneracy of
the monasteries is remembered. Neither Edward IV. nor Richard III. seems
to have availed himself of the increasing plenty of books. The library
of the former was a very unimportant affair. From the Wardrobe Account
of this King (1480) we get a few highly interesting facts concerning
book-binding, gildings, and garnishing: 'For vj unces and iij quarters
of silk to the laces and tassels for garnysshing of diverse Bookes,
price the unce xiiij_d._--vij_s._ x_d._ ob.; for the making of xvj laces
and xvj tassels made of the said vj unces and iij of silke, price in
grete ij_s._ vii_d._' These moneys were paid to Alice Claver, a
'sylk-woman.' And again 'to Piers Bauduyn, stacioner, for bynding,
gilding and dressing of a booke called "Titus Livius," xx_s._; for
bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke of the Holy Trinitie, xvj_s._;
for bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke called "Frossard," xvj_s._;
for bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke called the Bible, xvj_s._;
for bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke called "Le Gouvernement of
Kinges and Princes," xvj_s._; for bynding and dressing of the three
smalle bookes of Franche, price in grete vj_s._ viiij_d._; for the
dressing of ij bookes whereof oon is called "La Forteresse de Foy" and
the other called the "Book of Josephus," iij_s._ iiij_d._; and for
bynding, gilding and dressing a booke called the "Bible Historial,"
xx_s._'

The only incident which calls for special mention in the two next short
reigns is a law, 1 Richard III., 1483, by which it was enacted that if
any of the printers or sellers of printed books--the 'great plenty' of
which came from 'beyond the sea'--'vend them at too high and
unreasonable prices,' then the Lord Chancellor, Lord Treasurer, or any
of the chief justices of the one bench or the other, were to regulate
the prices.

[Illustration: _Roman Books and Writing Materials._]




[Illustration]

BOOK-HUNTING AFTER THE INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING.


I.

THE introduction of printing into this country by Caxton during the
latter half of the fifteenth century had very little immediate effect on
book-collecting. The operations of the press were slow, its patrons few,
and its work controlled by one man. The reproduction of MSS. was
essentially a slow process, but when these transcriptions were finished,
they rarely failed to find a purchaser. Caxton, like Sweynheim and
Pannartz at Subiaco, soon learned the seriousness of over-printing an
edition. Collectors were few, and the introduction of printing did not
very materially add to their number. London, however, soon became a
recognised centre of the trade in books, and Henry VII. patronized, in
his curious fashion, the collecting of them. He read, according to
Bacon, 'most books that were of any worth in the French tongue,' and one
of the most commendable actions of this King was the purchase of the
noble series of vellum copies of the works printed at Paris by Antoine
Vérard, now in the British Museum--an act by which he may be said to
have laid the foundation of our great national library. The value of
books at this period is not without interest; but we must confine
ourselves to one or two facts relating to Caxton's books. At his death
in 1492, a copy of the 'Golden Legend' was valued at 6s. 8d. in the
books of the Westminster churchwarden. From a note by Dibdin, it would
seem that the price of Caxtons towards the end of the reign of Henry
VII. was as follows:

  'Godfray of Boulogne' (imperfect), ii_s._
  Virgil's 'Æneid' (perfect), xij_d._
  'Fait of Arms and Chivalry' (perfect), ij_s._ viij_d._
  'Chastising of God's Children,' viij_d._

Henry VIII. was undoubtedly a book-lover as well as a book-collector. He
established a library at St. James's. But perhaps it is rather as a
book-disperser that Henry is entitled to notice in this place. The
dissolution of the monasteries is the genesis of book-collecting in
London. The first move in this respect is entitled 'An Act that all
religious houses under the yearly revenue of £200 shall be dissolved and
given to the King and his heirs,' and is dated 1535 (27 Henry VIII.,
cap. 28, ii. 134). The second is dated 1539. Whatever advantages in a
general way the dissolution of the monasteries may have had, its
consequences, so far as regards the libraries, which the monks
considered as among their most cherished possessions, were disastrous
beyond measure. Indeed, we have no conception of our losses. Addressing
himself to Edward VI. in 1549, John Bale, afterwards Bishop of Ossory,
who had but little love for Popery of any description, writes in this
strain: 'Avarice was the other dispatcher which hath made an end both of
our libraries and books . . . to the no small decay of the commonwealth.
A great number of them who purchased those superstitious mansions
[monasteries], reserved of these Library-books, some . . . to scour
their candlesticks, and some to rub their boots; some they sold to the
grocers and soap-sellers, and some they sent over sea to the
bookbinders, not in small numbers, but at times whole shipsfull, to the
wondering of the foreign nations. Yea, the universities of this realm
are not all clear in this detestable fact. But cursed is that belly
which seeketh to be fed with so ungodly gains, and so deeply shameth his
natural country. I know a merchantman, which shall at this time be
nameless, that bought the contents of two noble Libraries for forty
shillings price: a shame it is to be spoken. This stuff hath he occupied
in the stead of gray paper by the space of more than these ten years;
and yet he hath store enough for as many years to come. . . . Our
posterity may well curse this wicked fact of our age, this unreasonable
spoil of England's most noble antiquities, unless they be stayed in
time.' Fuller, in his 'Church History of Britain,' quotes Bale's
lamentation, and adds his own testimony on the same subject: 'As brokers
in Long Lane, when they buy an old suit buy the linings together with
the outside, so it was considered meet that such as purchased the
buildings of monasteries should in the same grant have the Libraries
(the stuffing thereof) conveyed unto them. And now these ignorant
owners, so long as they might keep a ledger-book or terrier by direction
thereof to find such straggling acres as belonged unto them, they cared
not to preserve any other monuments. The covers of books, with curious
brass bosses and clasps, intended to protect, proved to betray them,
being the baits of covetousness. And so many excellent authors, stripped
out of their cases, were left naked, to be buried or thrown away. . . .
What soul can be so frozen as not to melt into anger thereat? What
heart, having the least spark of ingenuity, is not hot at this indignity
offered to literature? I deny not but that in this heap of books there
was much rubbish; legions of lying legends, good for nothing but fuel
. . . volumes full fraught with superstition, which, notwithstanding,
might be useful to learned men; except any will deny apothecaries the
privilege of keeping poison in their shops, when they can make antidotes
of them. But, beside these, what beautiful Bibles, rare Fathers, subtile
Schoolmen, useful Historians--ancient, middle, modern; what painful
Comments were here amongst them! What monuments of mathematics all
massacred together; seeing every book with a cross was condemned for
Popish; with circles for conjuring.'

The calamities bewailed in such picturesque language by Bale and Fuller
would have been much more serious but for the labours of one of our
earliest antiquaries and book-lovers, John Leland. 'The laboryouse
Journey and serche of Johan Leylande for Englandes Antiquities geven of
hym as a newe yeares gyfte to kynge Henry the viii in the xxxvij yeare
of his Reygne,' 1549, is a remarkable publication, of great interest to
the book-hunter and the antiquary.

But the fruits of Leland's researches cannot now be fully known, for he
was too intent on accumulating material to draw up an adequate
inventory. Much that he preserved from destruction is now in the British
Museum, and some is in the Bodleian at Oxford. Some of the fragments
which he had saved from the general destruction had been placed in the
King's own library in Westminster.

The dissolution of the monasteries had among its many effects the
creation, so to speak, of a large number of collectors. One of the most
famous of the early sixteenth-century collectors, Sir Thomas More,
however, died (in 1535) before he could have availed himself of the many
treasures scattered to all quarters of the earth.

Dibdin records a bibliomaniacal anecdote which is well worth repeating
here, as it shows how More's love of books had infected even those who
came to seize upon him to carry him to the Tower, and to endeavour to
inveigle him into treasonable expressions: 'While Sir Richard Southwell
and Mr. Palmer weare bussie in trussinge upp his bookes, Mr. Riche,
pretending,' etc., 'whereupon Mr. Palmer, on his deposition, said, that
he was soe bussie ab{t} the trussinge upp Sir Tho. Moore's bookes in a
sacke, that he tooke no heed of there talke.'

Henry, Earl of Arundel, was not slow to seize upon the advantages which
the dissolution placed before everyone. At Nonsuch, in Surrey, he formed
a library, which is described in a biography of him, written shortly
after his death, as 'righte worthye of remembrance.' Besides his
numerous MSS. and printed books, he acquired a considerable portion of
the library of Cranmer, which was dispersed at the death of the
Archbishop. His books passed to his son-in-law, Lord Lumley, at whose
decease they were purchased by Henry, Prince of Wales, and are now in
the British Museum. The Earl of Arundel's books are handsomely bound,
and are known by his badge of the white horse and oak branch which
generally occurs on the covers.

[Illustration: _Earl of Arundel's Badge._]

In Jeremy Collier's 'Ecclesiastical History' (vol. ii. 307) we get a
glimpse of book-matters in London in the middle of the sixteenth
century. At the end of February, 1550, we learn that the Council book
mentions the King's sending a letter for the purging of the library at
Westminster. The persons are not named, but the business was to cull out
all superstitious books, as missals, legends, and such-like, and to
deliver the garniture of the books, either gold or silver, to Sir
Anthony Archer. These books were many of them plated with gold and
silver and curiously embossed. This, as far as we can collect, was the
superstition that destroyed them. 'Here avarice had a very thin
disguise, and the courtiers discovered of what spirit they were to a
remarkable degree.' Here is another picture of an almost contemporaneous
event, equally vivid in its suggestiveness: 'John Tyndale, the
translator's brother, and Thomas Patmore, merchants, were condemned to
do penance by riding with their faces to their horses' tails, with their
books fastened thick about them, pinned, or tacked, to their gowns or
clokes, to the Standard in Cheap; and there with their own hands to
fling them into the fire, kindled on purpose to burn them.'

As a book-collecting period the sixteenth century, from the accession of
Henry VIII.--when books became the organs of the passions of mankind--to
the death of Elizabeth, is full of intense interest. The old order had
changed; the world itself had made an entirely fresh start. Men and
events of the previous two or three centuries were almost as antique
then as they are to-day, and perhaps in many respects they were
infinitely less clearly understood. As the century grew in age, so the
number of book-collectors increased. The hobby became first a passion
with the few, and then the fashion with the many. Henry VIII. was
perhaps a passive rather than an active collector, with a distinct
leaning in favour of beautiful books. His three children, who followed
him on the throne of England, were collectors of books, and the majority
of their purchases must have been made in London. Many of these books
have, at some time or other, drifted from private hands into the
sale-rooms, but perhaps the majority of those now existing are to be
found within the walls of our public institutions. For example, at the
sale of Dr. Askew's MSS., in 1775, a very interesting item was purchased
by a Mr. Jackson, a Quaker, and a dealer in wine and spirits, with whom
book-collecting was a passion. The MS. proved to be in the handwriting
of Edward VI.; it was in French, and dealt with his opinion of his right
to the title of Supreme Head of the Church. At Jackson's sale the MS.
became the property of the British Museum. As another illustration, we
may refer to the copy of the 'Flores Historiarum per Matthæum
Westmonasteriensem,' etc., 1570, in the British Museum (Cracherode
Collection) which is the identical one presented by Archbishop Parker
(by whose authority it was published) to Queen Elizabeth. It afterwards
fell into the hands of Francis, Earl of Bedford, who bequeathed it, with
the furniture of a little study, to his secretary. It was subsequently
in the possession of Ritson. And yet again, in the Eton College Library,
there is a copy of the 'Missale Romanum,' printed at Paris by Hardouyn,
1530, which belonged to Mary, with a sentence in her handwriting; this
volume afterwards came into the possession of Mary of Este, Queen of
James II., and subsequently into the hands of a London bookseller, from
whom it was purchased for fifty-three shillings by Bishop Fleetwood, and
presented to the college library. Indeed, a large volume might be
compiled on the Adventures of Some Famous Books.

Interesting and important as is the phase of book-collecting which
relates to royal personages, it falls into insignificance beside that of
men who have achieved greatness through their own abilities. The books
collected by Thomas Cranmer, for example, quite overshadow in interest
anything which the whole reign of the Tudors could produce. It has been
well said that his knowledge of books was wide, and his opportunities
for acquiring them unrivalled. Cranmer was a generous collector, for his
library was quite open for the use of learned men. Latimer spent 'many
an hour' there, and has himself told us that he met with a copy of
Dionysius 'in my Lord of Canterbury's library.' We have already seen
that many of Cranmer's books passed into the possession of the Earl of
Arundel, but many were 'conveyed and stolen awaie.' Cranmer's books have
found an enthusiastic historian in Prebendary Burbidge, who has almost
rehabilitated the great ecclesiastic's library in the first part of Mr.
Quaritch's 'Dictionary of English Book-collectors.' Another
book-collector of a very different type was amassing an extensive
library at a somewhat later period than Cranmer: Dr. Dee, the famous
necromancer, had collected '4,000 volumes, printed and unprinted, bound
and unbound, valued at 2,000 lib.,' of which one Greek, two French and
one High Dutch volumes of MSS. alone were 'worth 533 lib.' It occupied
forty years to form this library. Most of his books passed into the
possession of Elias Ashmole--who was another collector with an
insatiable appetite--and now form a part of the Ashmolean Museum. Some
of Dee's singular MSS. were found, long after his death, in the secret
drawer of a chest, which had passed through many hands undiscovered.
Reverting for a moment to Ashmole, he himself tells us that he gave
'five volumes of Mr. Dugdale's' works to the Temple Library. And
further: 'My first boatful of books, which were carried to Mrs.
Tradescant's, were brought back to the Temple.' In May, 1667, he bought
Mr. John Booker's study of books, and gave £140 for them. In 1681 he
bought 'Mr. Lilly's library of books of his widow, for £50.'

A very distinguished book-collector of the Elizabethan period was Sir
Francis Drake, the great Admiral. It did not seem to be at all known
that the distinguished naval hero was also a bibliophile until 1883,
when the collection of books was brought from the old residence of the
Drakes, Nutwell Court, Lympstone, Devon, to Sotheby's. The sale
comprised 1,660 lots, representing several thousand volumes, the total
being £3,276 17s. 6d. It was especially rich in books and old tracts of
the early seventeenth century relating to the English voyages to
America, and some of these realized very high figures. Although the
library was undoubtedly founded by Drake, it was evidently continued by
his descendants. Bacon, Baron of Verulam, was a distinguished
book-collector, as the shelves of his chambers in Gray's Inn would have
testified. Archbishop Parker, than whom 'a more determined book-fancier
never existed in Great Britain,' and Gabriel Harvey, the friend of
Spenser, and the object of Tom Nash's withering scorn, were among the
most inveterate book-collectors of Elizabethan London. Had Harvey--whose
books usually contain his autograph on the title-page, and not a few of
which were given him by Spenser--studied his books less, and the proper
study of mankind a little more, he might have shown his talents off to a
better advantage than in his conflicts with Nash. In the Bodleian there
is a set of old tales and romances which Spenser lent Harvey, taking as
a hostage, apparently, Harvey's copy of Lucian in four volumes. Harvey
had a very poor opinion of such 'foolish' books, but he does not seem to
have returned them to their rightful owner. The fire which destroyed Ben
Jonson's MSS. undoubtedly consumed many of his printed books, but
examples from his library, with 'Sum Ben Jonson' inscribed, are
sometimes met with. Shakespeare may have had a library, but we have no
evidence that he possessed even a copy of his own plays in quarto. The
Elizabethan poets and dramatists were prodigious contributors to the
press, but very poor patrons of booksellers. From various sources we get
some highly-coloured and unflattering pictures of the typical
booksellers of the period. Tom Nash has limned for us a vivid little
portrait in 'Pierce Penilesse' (1592), in which he declares that if he
were to paint Sloth, 'I swear that I would draw it like a stationer that
I know, with his thumb under his girdle, who, if ever a man come to his
stall to ask him for a book, never stirs his head, or looks upon him,
but stands stone still, and speaks not a word, only with his little
finger points backward to his boy, who must be his interpreter; and so
all day, gaping like a dumb image, he sits without motion, except at
such times as he goes to dinner or supper, for then he is as quick as
other three, eating six times every day.'


II.

From start to finish the Stuart dynasty ruled England for close on
three-quarters of a century. That book-collecting should have existed at
all under it is a marvel. But the hobby no longer depended upon the
patronage of courts and courtiers. From the Wise Fool, James I., to the
Foolish Fool, the second James, collectors pursued their hobby in London
and out of it. James I. began to collect books at a very early age, and
a list of his library was published for the first time in the _Athenæum_
in 1893. It has, however, but little interest to us in this place, for
doubtless most of the books were imported into Scotland from the great
book centre, Paris. The library which he acquired after his accession to
the throne of England is of little consequence, for he was not the
person to purchase books when he had the means, and doubtless many of
his bookish possessions were gifts. In the library at Eton College there
is his copy of Captain John Smith's 'History of Virginia,' 1624, which
was rescued by Storer from a dirty bookseller's shop in Derby, and the
existence of many others might be traced. It is certain that 'he gave
them shabby coverings, and scribbled idle notes on their margins.' Had
his son Henry lived, he might have developed into a respectable
book-collector. We know for certain that he 'paid a Frenchman that
presented a book, £4 10s.'; and that he paid 'Mr. Holyoak for writing a
catalogue of the library which the Prince had of Lord Lumley, £8 13s.
4d.' Charles II., like his forbears, was not a book-buyer, and so far as
he is concerned we must content ourselves with repeating a little
anecdote after Dibdin, who refers to an 'old and not incurious library
at Workingham, in Suffolk,' where there was a very fine ruled copy of
Hayes's Bible, published at Cambridge, 1674, in two volumes folio; on
the fly-leaf it contains the following memorandum: 'N.B.--This Bible
belonged to K. Charles IId. and [was] given by him to Duke Lauderdale
and sold by auction w{th} y{e} rest of his Books.' In a comparatively
modern hand, below, is written in pencil:

     'Hark ye, my friends, that on this Bible look,
      Marvel not at the fairness of the Book;
      No soil of fingers, nor such ugly things,
      Expect to find, Sirs, for it _was the King's_.'

[Illustration: _Sir Robert Cotton._]

The most distinguished Metropolitan book-collector of the period was Sir
Robert Cotton, who began as early as 1588, and who had assistance from
such antiquaries as William Camden and Sir Henry Spelman. This library,
after being closed on account of the treasonable character of the
documents contained in it, passed into the possession of Cotton's son,
Sir Thomas, whose house was almost adjoining Westminster Hall. Anthony à
Wood gives a curious account of a visit he paid it, when he found its
owner practising on the lute. The key of the library was in the
possession of one Pearson, who lodged with a bookseller in Little
Britain. Wood was 'forced to walk thither, and much ado there was to
find him.' This library was removed to Essex Street, and again back to
Westminster to Ashburnham House in Little Dean's Yard, where it suffered
greatly from a fire in 1731, and what remains of it is now in the
British Museum. Sir Thomas Bodley was another collector, but few of his
accumulations appear to have come from London. The extraordinary
collection of pamphlets got together by Tomlinson, and now stored in the
British Museum, is too well known to need more than a passing reference.
It is not so generally known that Narcissus Luttrell was a very
voracious collector of broadsides, tracts, and so forth. To nearly every
one of the items he affixed the price he paid for it. In 1820, at the
Bindley sale, this extraordinary collection, ranging in date from 1640
to 1688, and comprising twelve volumes, realized the then large amount
of £781.

[Illustration: _Sir Julius Cæsar's Travelling Library._]

Sir Julius Cæsar, Master of the Rolls under James I., was a
book-collector of the right sort, and his box of charming little
editions of the classics, with which he used to solace himself on a
journey, is now in the safe keeping of the British Museum. Sir Julius
was born in 1557, and died in April, 1636; he possessed a fine
collection of highly interesting manuscripts, which had the narrowest
possible escape from being destroyed at the latter part of the last
century. The collection was rescued in time by Samuel Paterson, the
auctioneer, and it is now in the British Museum.

Robert Burton (the author of the 'Anatomy of Melancholy') was, like
Luttrell, also a great collector of tracts, and his library, now in the
Bodleian, is peculiarly rich in historical, political, and poetical
pamphlets, and in miscellaneous accounts of murders, monsters, and
accidents. He seems to have purchased and preserved a copy of everything
that came out. 'There is no nation,' says Johnson, 'in which it is so
necessary as in our own to assemble the small tracts and fugitive
pieces.' 'The writers of these' frequently have opportunities 'of
inquiring from living witnesses, and of copying their representations
from the life, and preserve a multitude of particular incidents which
are forgotten in a short time, or omitted in formal relations, and yet
afford light in some of the darkest scenes of state.' 'From pamphlets,'
says the same writer, 'are to be learned the progress of every debate,
and of every opinion.' And he compares the impression produced on the
mind of him who shall consult these tracts, and of another that refers
merely to formal historians, to the _difference of him who hears of a
victory, and him who sees the battle_. Archbishop Laud collected from
far and wide. John Selden, like Laud, had a distinct weakness for
learned books, and consequently could have found little to satisfy his
cravings in London. Selden, when disturbed, put his spectacles into the
book he was busy with by way of marking the place; and after his death
numbers of volumes were found with these curious book-markers. John
Felton, who murdered Buckingham, was also a book-collector in a small
way. In Lilly's catalogue for 1863 there was a copy of Peacham's
'Compleat Gentleman,' 1622, with the following on the fly-leaf: 'John
Felton, vicessimo secundo die Junii, 1622.'

A few glances, at this point, at the more material phases of
book-collecting may not be without interest. The following is one of the
earliest bookseller's statements of accounts with which we are
acquainted. It was rendered to 'the Right Honourable the Lord Conway,'
on May 31, 1638, by Henry Seile, whose shop was at the sign of the
Tiger's Head, Fleet Street:

  1 Nash's Ha' wee you to Saffron Walden                  00 02 06
  1 Greene's Arcadia               }                   {
  1 Farewell to Folly              }                   {
  1 Tullies' Love                  } These nine Bookes {
  1 Lady Fitzwater's Nightingale   } were delivered to {  00 10  0
  1 Mamilia                        } your Lordship at  {
  1 Never too Late                 } Xs.               {
  1 Groatesworth of Wit            }                   {
  1 Mourning Garment               }                   {
  1 Peers pennylesse supplication  }                   {

In a letter addressed to Evelyn by Dr. Cosin (afterwards Bishop of
Durham) during his exile, and dated July 18, 1651, we get a delightful
glimpse of two book-lovers doing 'a deal.' Mr. Evelyn was apparently a
man who could drive a bargain with Hebraic shrewdness. 'Truly, sir,'
expostulated mildly the excited ecclesiastic, 'I thought I had prevented
any further motion of abatement by the large offer that I made to
you. . . . If you consider their number, I desire you would be pleased
to consider likewise, that they are a choice number, and a company of
the best selected books among them all. . . . There is in your note
Pliny's "Natural History" in English, priced at 36s., which is worth £3;
Camden's "Errors," priced at 5s. 6d., for which I have seen £1 given;
Paulus Jovius at £1, which sells now in Paris at 4 pistoles; and Pol.
Virgil at 10s., which sells here for £10; William of Malmesbury at 15s.,
for which they demand here £30, and Asser Menev, etc., at 14s., which
they will not part with here nor elsewhere abroad for £20.'

It is highly probable that the book-market was never so bad in London
as during this period; for, in addition to the above illustration, and
at about the same time, Isaac Vossius came over to this country with a
quantity of literary property, some of which had belonged to his learned
father, in the hopes of selling it; but he 'carried them back into
Holland,' where 'a quicker mercate' was expected.


III.

[Illustration: _Archbishop Usher._]

_Sic transit gloria mundi_ might well be the motto of a History of
Book-Collectors, for in by far the majority of cases great private
libraries have been formed in one generation by genuine bookworms, only
to be scattered in the next by needy legatees or in consequence of
impoverished estates. There can be no doubt that several famous
libraries have derived their origin from the mere vanity of emulating a
fashionable pursuit. Into this matter, however, it is not necessary for
us to enter, except to hazard the suggestion that if the money had not
been spent in that direction it would doubtless have been squandered in
some less worthy and enduring manner. One of the most interesting and
valuable contributions to the history of private collections of the
seventeenth century is embedded in the long and entertaining letter
which John Evelyn addressed to Mr. Pepys in August, 1689. This letter is
so accessible that it may seem superfluous to quote any part of it; but
a few of the leading points are necessary to the proper sequence of our
story. 'The Bishop of Ely has a very well-stored library, but the very
best is what Dr. Stillingfleet has at Twickenham, ten miles out of
town. . . . Our famous lawyer, Sir Edward Coke, purchased a very choice
library of Greek and other MSS., which were sold him by Dr. Meric
Casaubon, son of the learned Isaac; and these, together with his
delicious villa, Durdens, came into the possession of the present Earl
of Berkeley from his uncle, Sir Robert Cook. . . . I have heard that Sir
Henry Savill was master of many precious MSS., and he is frequently
celebrated for it by the learned Valesius, almost in every page of that
learned man's Annotations on Eusebius, and the Ecclesiastical
Historians published by him. The late Mr. Hales, of Eton, had likewise a
very good library; and so had Dr. Cosin, late Bishop of Duresme [and
afterwards of Durham], a considerable part of which I had agreed with
him for myself during his exile abroad, as I can show under his own
hand; but his late daughter, since my Lady Garret, thought I had not
offered enough, and made difficulty in delivering them to me till near
the time of his Majesty's restoration, and after that the Dean, her
father, becoming Bishop of that opulent See, bestowed them on the
library there. But the Lord Primate Usher was inferior to none I have
named among the clergy for rare MSS., a great part of which, being
brought out of Ireland, and left his son-in-law, Sir Timothy Tyrill, was
disposed of to give bread to that incomparable Prelate during the late
fanatic war. Such as remained yet at Dublin were preserved, and by a
public purse restored and placed in the college library of that
city. . . . I forbear to name the late Earl of Bristol's and his
kinsman's, Sir Kenelm Digby's, libraries, of more pompe than intrinsic
value, as chiefly consisting of modern poets, romances, chymical, and
astrological books. . . . As for those of Sir Kenelm, the catalogue was
printed and most of them sold in Paris, as many better have lately been
in London. The Duke of Lauderdale's[27:A] is yet entire, choicely
bound, and to be sold by a friend of mine, to whom they are pawned; but
it comes far short of his relation's, the Lord Maitland's, which was
certainly the noblest, most substantial and accomplished library that
ever passed under the speare, and heartily it grieved me to behold its
limbs, like those of the chaste Hippolytus, separated and torn from that
so well chosen and compacted a body. The Earl of Anglesey's, and several
others since, by I know not what invidious fate, passed the same
fortune, to whatever influence and constellation now reigning malevolent
to books and libraries, which can portend no good to the future age.'

[Illustration: _Wotton House in 1840._]

It is interesting to note that of the several libraries enumerated by
Evelyn three have become, partly or wholly, public property. That of Dr.
John Moore, Bishop of Ely, was purchased after his death by George I.
for £6,000, and presented to the University of Cambridge, where it now
is.[27:B] Evelyn himself was, as will have been gathered, an ardent
book-collector. He began forming a library very early in life, whilst
that of his brother came to him by bequest. At the time of his death he
had a very extensive collection of books at Wotton, which has been
considerably augmented by his successors. In the early part of the
present century William Upcott, of the London Institution, drew up a
complete catalogue. Upcott's appearance on the scene synchronized with
the disappearance of a number of volumes from the Evelyn Library; it has
been suggested that Lady Evelyn presented them to him 'or something of
that sort,' although the circumstance has never been officially
explained. Certain it is that a large number of books formerly in the
possession of the diarist have at times appeared in the auction-room.
The most important which occurred during the last few years are two
beautifully-written MSS., the work of Richard Hoare, one having the
title 'Instructions Oeconomiques,' 1648, with a dedication 'To the
present mistress of my youth, the hopeful companion of my riper years,
and the future nurse of my old age, Mrs. May Evelyn, my deare wife,'
etc. The second was a book of Private Devotions, 1650. Evelyn was also
unfortunate in his lifetime, inasmuch as the Duke of Lauderdale 'came to
my house, under pretence of a visit,' but in reality to borrow 'for a
few days' certain valuable MSS., which this aristocratic thief never
returned. So, too, he lent Burnet a quantity of MS. material for his
'History of the Reformation,' which, like other borrowed books, never
came back. A large number of first editions of the works of J. Evelyn,
together with some books from his library, illustrated with his
autograph notes, occurred in the sale of the library of the late Arthur
Davis, of Deptford and East Farleigh, July, 1857, many of which were
doubtless purloined at some time or other.

[Illustration: _Magdalen College, Oxford._]

Of all the seventeenth-century book-collectors, perhaps the most
interesting is that other diarist, Samuel Pepys. Samuel was not a man of
great learning, but his wit, his knowledge of the world, and his
humanity were unbounded. He welcomed almost anything in the shape of a
book, from a roguish French novel to a treatise on medals, from a loose
Restoration play to a maritime pamphlet, and from lives of the saints to
books on astrology or philosophy. Not a great man, perhaps, but one of
the most delightful and entertaining that one could wish. The
Secretary's 'Diary' is full of allusions to men and events of bookish
interest, and gives frequent illustrations of his amiable passion for
book-collecting. Fortunately, we have not to grope in the dark to get an
accurate portrait of the genial Samuel as a book-collector, for his
entire library is preserved, almost in the same state as he left it, at
Magdalen College, Oxford, 'as curious a medley of the grave and gay' as
any person of catholic tastes could wish for. The library consists of
almost 3,000 volumes, preserved in eleven mahogany bookcases. The books
are all arranged in double rows, the small ones in front being
sufficiently low to permit of the titles of the back row of larger ones
being easily read. The library is a remarkably accurate reflection of
the tastes of the founder. In addition to what is termed ordinary useful
books, there are many rarities, including no less than nine Caxtons, and
several from the press of Wynkyn de Worde and Pynson. The celebrated
collection of ballads, commenced by Selden and continued by Pepys, is
second only in importance to the famous Roxburghe collection now in the
British Museum. The manuscripts of various kinds form a very valuable
part of this celebrated collection.

[Illustration: _Sir Hans Sloane's Monument._]

John Bagford, the biblioclast (1675-1716), also finishes us, like
Evelyn, with a list of book-collectors who were contemporaneous with
him. Besides Bishop Moore, already mentioned, there were Sir Hans
Sloane, Lords Carbery (Duke of Kent), Pembroke, Somers, Sunderland, and
Halifax. Among the commoners who emulated their 'betters' were Messrs.
Huckle, Chichely, Bridges, Walter Clavell, Rawlinson, Slaughter, Topham,
Wanley, Captain Hatton, 'Right Hon. Secretary Harley,' and Dr. Salmon,
whose collection is said to have consisted of 1,700 folios. Edwards, in
his most valuable work on libraries, mentions yet a third list, which is
anonymous, and is apparently almost contemporaneous with Bagford's. The
list is introduced with the remark that 'the laudable emulation which is
daily increasing amongst the nobility of England, vying with each other
in the curiosities and other rich furniture of their respective
libraries, gives cheerful hope of having the long-hidden monuments of
ancient times raised out of their present dust and rubbish,' and then
makes special mention of the libraries of the Duke of Kent, Lords Derby,
Denbigh, Longueville, Willoughby de Broke, Sunderland, Somers, and
Halifax.

When good Mr. Evelyn described Sir Kenelm Digby's library as 'of more
pomp than intrinsic value,' and as 'chiefly consisting of modern poets,
romances, chemical and astrological books,' he did not contemplate the
future possibility of such despised trifles becoming fashionable and in
greater request than the accumulations of the collectors to whom the
classics were daily food. As Edwards has pointed out, the portion which
Digby gave to the Bodleian was in reality the fruit of the researches of
his tutor, Thomas Allen. The portion which was of his own collecting,
and consequently the only portion which accurately mirrored his own
tastes, he took with him to France when driven into exile. When he died
there, it apparently passed into the possession of Digby, Earl of
Bristol, on whose account it was sold in London in 1680, fifteen years
after its owner's death. The catalogue enumerated 3,878 items, of which
69 were manuscripts, the total of the sale being £904 4s.

Among the most famous of the seventeenth-century collectors were the two
brothers Francis, Baron Guilford, Lord Keeper (1637-1685), and Dr. John
North, master of Trinity College (1645-1683). Of these two there are
some very entertaining facts in Roger North's 'Lives of the Norths'
(1742-44). Dr. John North, we are told, 'very early in his career began
to look after books and to lay the foundation of a competent library
. . . buying at one lift a whole set of Greek classics in folio, in best
editions. This sunk his stock [of money] for the time; but afterwards
for many years of his life all that he could (as they say) rap or run
went the same way. But the progress was small, for such a library as
he desired, compared with what the pittance of his stock would
purchase, allowing many years to the gathering, was of desperate
expectation. . . . He courted, as a fond lover, all best editions,
fairest characters, best-bound and preserved. . . . He delighted in the
small editions of the classics by Seb. Gryphius, and divers of his
acquaintance, meeting with any of them, bought and brought them to him,
which he accepted as choice presents, although, perhaps, he had one or
two of them before. . . . His soul was never so staked down as in an old
bookseller's shop. . . . He was for the most part his own factor, and
seldom or never bought by commission, which made him lose time in
turning over vast numbers of books, and he was very hardly pleased at
last. I have borne him company in shops for many hours together, and,
minding him of the time, he hath made a dozen proffers before he would
quit. By this care and industry, at length he made himself master of a
very considerable library, wherein the choicest collection was Greek.'
At his death the collection came to his brother, the Lord Keeper.

As with Dr. John North, book-hunting was the consuming passion of the
life of a very different man--Richard Smyth or Smith (of whom there is a
very fine and rare engraving by W. Sherwin), one of the Secondaries or
Under-Sheriffs from 1644 to 1655. Having sufficient wealth, he resigned
his municipal appointment, which was worth £700 a year, in order to
devote himself entirely to book-hunting. Anthony à Wood describes him as
'infinitely curious and inquisitive after books,' and states that 'he
was constantly known every day to walk his rounds amongst the
booksellers' shops (especially in Little Britain).' Richard Chiswell,
the bookseller who drew up a catalogue of Smith's books, which
subsequently came into his possession _en bloc_, tells us that his skill
and experience enabled him 'to make choice of such books that were not
obvious to every man's eye. . . . He lived in times which ministered
peculiar opportunities of meeting with books that were not every day
brought into public light, and few eminent libraries were bought where
he had not the liberty to pick and choose. Hence arose, as that vast
number of his books, so the choiceness and rarity of the greatest part
of them, and that of all kinds, and in all sorts of learning.' This
collection was sold by auction in May, 1682, the catalogue of it
occupying 404 closely-printed pages in large quarto. There were fourteen
Caxtons, 'the aggregate produce' of which was £3 14s. 7d.; the 'Godfrey
of Bulloigne' selling for 18s., 'being K. Edwarde the IVth's owne
booke,' and the 'Booke of Good Manners,' for 2s.; the highest price in
the entire sale being given for Holinshed's 'Chronicle,' 'with the
addition of many sheets that were castrated, being . . . not allowed to
be printed,' £7. Smith left an interesting and valuable obituary list of
certain of his bibliopolic friends (which is reprinted in _Willis'
Current Notes_, February, 1853), one of whom, according to him, was
'buried at St. Bartholomew's, without wine or wafers, only gloves and
rosemary.'

[Illustration: _Little Britain in 1550._]

Dr. Francis Bernard, chief physician to James II., was an indefatigable
book-hunter; being 'a person who collected his books, not for
ostentation or ornament, he seemed no more solicitous about their dress
than his own, and, therefore, you'll find that a gilt back or a large
margin was very seldom an inducement for him to buy. 'Twas sufficient
for him that he had the book.' His library was sold in 1698, and
realized the then enormous sum of £2,000. John Bridges, of Lincoln's
Inn, the historian of Northamptonshire, was a collector who read as well
as bought books; his collection was sold at auction in 1726, when 4,313
lots realized £4,001. Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, was a collector
with comprehensive tastes and almost unlimited means. His collection is
now in the British Museum, and is computed to have numbered about 26,000
volumes, on the binding of only a portion of which he is said to have
expended £18,000, besides a mass of 350,000 pamphlets. Thomas Baker
(1625-1690) bequeathed a portion of his library to St. John's College,
Cambridge, notwithstanding the fact that he was ejected therefrom. He
was an unceasing collector, but his finances were scanty, and, worst of
all, he had to contend with collectors of greater wealth, or
'purse-ability' as Bodley calls it. Writing to Humfrey Wanley, he says:
'I begin to complain of the men of quality who lay out so much for
books, and give such prices that there is nothing to be had for poor
scholars, whereof I have found the effects. When I bid a fair price for
an old book, I am answered, the "quality" will give twice as much, and
so I have done. I have had much ado to pick up a few old books at
tolerable prices, and despair of any more.' About 2,000 of his books
went to St. John's College, and the others were sold by auction, many
bearing the inscription 'Thomas Baker, socius ejectus,' etc. The library
of another collector who, like Baker, had more of the kicks than of the
ha'pence of this life, Thomas Hearne (1678-1735), may be mentioned
briefly in this paragraph, for both were men of great learning. Hearne's
collection was sold in February, 1736, by Osborne the bookseller, 'the
lowest price being marked in each book.' On the title-page of the
catalogue, and beneath a poor portrait of Hearne, is the well-known
couplet:

              'Quoth Time to Thomas Hearne,
     "Whatever I forget, you learn."'

Humphrey Dyson is another book-collector of this period, and is
described by Hearne as 'a very curious man in collecting books.' The
Wesleys were book-lovers and readers, but have perhaps but little claim
to rank as collectors _pur sang_. However, it is interesting to point
out that Lilly's catalogue for 1863 included a copy of Purcell's
'Orpheus Britannicus,' 1706, with an inscription on the fly-leaf: 'C.
Wesley, junior. The valuable gift of his much-honor'd Father.'

The Restoration poets, like those of the Elizabethan period, had a
sufficiently hard fight to keep themselves in food; books were luxuries
which they could only venture to enjoy at long and uncertain intervals.
Dryden and Congreve, however, appear to have been addicted to the
pleasant pastime.

An exceedingly interesting copy of Spenser's 'Works,' folio, 1679, was
once in the possession of Mr. F. S. Ellis. On the fly-leaf occurred this
note: 'The corrections made in this book are of Mr. Dryden's own
handwriting. J. Tonson.' The volume occurred in an auction, where its
value was not detected. The 'corrections,' Mr. Ellis states, extend
through the whole of the volume, and bear witness to the care and
diligence with which Dryden had studied Spenser's poems. Several of the
notes are in explanation of the text, but for the most part are careful
and curious corrections of the text and press. The pedigree of this
volume is well established by its having in the cover the bookplate of
Thomas Barrett, of Lee, celebrated by Dibdin as a 'bibliomaniacal and
tasteful gentleman.' Though Barrett died in 1757, his library was not
dispersed till a few years since. Izaak Walton was a collector, and took
the wise precaution of writing his autograph in each volume, as the very
interesting score of examples now at Salisbury prove. His friend,
Charles Cotton, of cheerful memory, was much more of a book-collector,
although from the 'Angler' it would seem that his whole library was
contained in his hall window. Like Walton, Cotton wrote his autograph in
most of his books, which occur in the auction-room at irregular
intervals. The extent or variety of the Cotton correction may be
gathered from the following 'epigram' which Sir Aston Cokaine wrote
(1658) 'To my Cousin, Mr. Charles Cotton the Younger':

     'D'Avila, Bentivoglio, Guicciardine,
      And Machiavil, the subtle Florentine,
      In their originals I have read through,
      Thanks to your library, and unto you,
      The prime historians of later times; at least
      In the Italian tongue allow'd the best.
      When you have more such books, I pray vouchsafe
      Me their perusal, I'll return them safe.
      Yet for the courtesy, the recompense
      That I can make you will be only thanks.
      But you are noble-soul'd, and had much rather
      Bestow a benefit than receive a favour.'

[Illustration: _Charles, Third Earl of Sunderland._]

One of the most remarkable collections of books ever made by a private
individual was that known as the Sunderland Library. It was formed, not
only in the short space of twelve years, but at a time when many books,
now of almost priceless value, and scarcely to be had at any price, were
comparatively common, and certainly not costly. Neither money nor pains
was spared, 'and the bibliographical ardour of the founder soon began to
be talked of in the bookshops of the chief cities of Europe.' The
founder, Charles, third Earl of Sunderland, lived at Althorp, his town
house being in Piccadilly, on the site of which the Albany now stands.
At the latter place this library was lodged for several years. In
Macky's 'Journey through England,' 1724, Sunderland House is there
described as being separated from the street of Piccadilly 'by a wall
with large grown trees before the gate. . . . The greatest beauty of
this palace is the library, running from the house into the garden; and
I must say is the finest in Europe, both for the disposition of the
apartments, and of the books. The rooms, divided into five apartments,
are fully 150 feet long, with two stories of windows, and a gallery
runs round the whole in the second story for the taking down books. No
nobleman in any nation hath taken greater care to make his collection
complete, nor does he spare any cost for the most valuable and rare
books. Besides, no bookseller in Europe hath so many editions of the
same book as he, for he hath all, especially of the classicks.' The
founder of this famous library died on April 19, 1722. Evelyn has left a
few very interesting facts concerning this collection. Under the date
March 10, 1695, we read: 'I din'd at the Earl of Sunderland's with Lord
Spencer. My Lord shew'd me his library, now again improv'd by many books
bought at the sale of Sir Charles Scarborough, an eminent physician,
which was the very best collection, especially of mathematical books,
that was I believe in Europe, once design'd for the King's library at
St. James's, but the Queen dying, who was the greate patroness of the
designe, it was let fall, and the books were miserably dissipated.' Four
years later, April, 1699, we have another entry, to the effect that Lord
Spencer purchased 'an incomparable library,' until now the property of
'a very fine scholar, whom from a child I have known,' whose name does
not transpire [? Hadrian Beverland], but in whose library were many
'rare books . . . that were printed at the first invention of that
wonderful art.' In reference to Macky's incidental allusion to the Earl
of Sunderland's indifference to cost in forming his library, Wanley
confirms this. Writing in December, 1721, the diarist observes that the
books in Mr. Freebairn's library 'in general went low, or rather at vile
rates, through a combination of the booksellers against the sale. Yet
some books went for unaccountably high prices, which were bought by Mr.
Vaillant, the bookseller, who had an unlimited commission from the Earl
of Sunderland.' Among the items was an edition of Virgil, printed by
Zarothus _circa_ 1475: 'It was noted that when Mr. Vaillant had bought
the printed Virgil at £46, he huzza'd out aloud, and threw up his hat,
for joy that he had bought it so cheap.' When this famous book-collector
died, Wanley observes that 'by reason of his decease some benefit may
accrue to this library [Lord Oxford's], even in case his relations will
part with none of his books. I mean, _by his raising the price of books
no higher now_; so that, in probability, this commodity may fall in the
market; and any gentleman be permitted to buy an uncommon old book for
less than forty or fifty pounds.' The third son of this famous
book-collector, Charles, fifth Earl of Sunderland, and second Duke of
Marlborough, greatly enlarged the collection formed by his father; and
it was removed to Blenheim probably in 1734. This famous library
remained practically intact until it came under the hammer at Puttick
and Simpson's, occupying fifty-one days in the dispersal at intervals
from December 1, 1881, to March 22, 1883, the total being £55,581 6s. It
is stated that the library originally cost about £30,000.

Dr. David Williams, who from 1688 to the end of his life was minister
of a Presbyterian congregation which met at Hand Alley, Bishopsgate
Street, was a contemporary book-collector and book-hunter. His special
line was theology, and his library, which absorbed that of Dr. Bates,
once Rector of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, is still preserved intact, and
is now, to a certain degree, a free library. Archbishop Tenison was
another great book-hunter of this period, and his library was preserved
more or less intact until 1861, when it was dispersed at Sotheby's,
under an order of the Charity Commissioners.

The brothers Thomas and Richard Rawlinson were, probably, the most
omnivorous collectors of the earlier part of the last century.
Everything in the shape of a book was welcomed. The former (1681-1725),
whose 'C. & P.' (collated and perfect) appears on the frontispiece,
title-page, or fly-leaf of books, when he lived in Gray's Inn, had so
filled his set of four rooms with books that he was obliged to sleep in
the passage. He is said to be the original study for the 158th _Tatler_,
in which 'Tom Folio' and other _soi-disant_ scholars are trounced. 'He
has a greater esteem for Aldus and Elzevir than for Virgil and Horace.'
It is very doubtful whether Addison (who wrote this particular _Tatler_)
really had Thomas Rawlinson in mind, whom he describes as 'a learned
idiot.' Swift has declared that some know books as they do lords; learn
their titles exactly, and then brag of their acquaintance. But neither
description is applicable to Rawlinson, who, for all that, may have
known much more about Aldus or the Elzevirs than about Virgil or Horace.
With a pretty taste for epithets, in which our forefathers sometimes
indulged, Hearne has defended his friend from Addison's sarcasms by
declaring that the mistake could only have been made by a 'shallow
buffoon.' That Rawlinson was a bibliomaniac there can be no question,
for if he had a score copies of one book, he would purchase another for
the mere gratification of possessing it. When he removed to the large
mansion in Aldersgate Street, which had been the palace of the Bishops
of London, and which he shared with his brother, 'the books still
continued to be better lodged than their owner.' He died, at the
comparatively early age of forty-four, as he had lived, among dust and
cobwebs, 'in his bundles, piles and bulwarks of paper.' The catalogue of
his huge mass of books was divided into nine parts; the sale of the MSS.
alone occupied sixteen days. Richard Rawlinson (died 1755) survived his
brother thirty years, and continued to collect books with all his
brother's enthusiasm, but without his sheer book-greed. His MSS. are at
Oxford, and the extent and richness of his accumulations may be gathered
from the fact that the collector laid nearly thirty libraries under
contribution. His printed books were sold in 1756 by Samuel Baker (now
Sotheby's), the sale occupying forty-nine days, and the total amounting
to £1,155 1s.; a second sale included 20,000 pamphlets, and a third sale
consisted of prints.

[Illustration: _London House, Aldersgate Street, 1808._]

Among the wisest and most distinguished book-collectors of the first
half of the last century is Dr. Richard Mead (1673-1754), a physician by
profession, but a bibliophile by instinct, and whom Dr. Johnson
described as having 'lived more in the broad sunshine of life than
almost any other man.' As Dr. Mead's fine library was 'picked up at
Rome,' it scarcely comes within our purview; but it may be mentioned
that so long as this fine collection remained intact in London, it was
_ipso facto_ a free library; it was especially rich in the classics,
sciences and history. The first part was sold by Samuel Baker in 1754,
and the second in the following year, the 6,592 lots occupying
fifty-seven days, the total of the books being £5,496 15s. Dr. Mead's
mantle descended to his great friend and pupil, Dr. Anthony Askew
(1722-1774), who had an exceedingly fine library; his career as a
collector began in Paris in 1749, and nearly all his choicest treasures
appear to have been gathered on the Continent, and chiefly it seems by
Joseph Smith, the English Consul at Venice. Askew's first library was
purchased by George III. in 1762, and now forms an integral part of the
British Museum. His subsequent accumulations were dispersed in two
sections, the books in 1775, and the MSS. ten years later. We shall have
occasion to refer again to the Askew sale. Dr. Richard Farmer appears to
have imbibed his taste for book-collecting from Askew, and became an
indefatigable haunter of the London and country bookstalls, his special
line being Early English literature, then scarcely at all appreciated;
it is stated that the collection, which cost him less than £500,
realized, when sold by auction by King in 1798, upwards of £2,000. Dr.
Farmer is better remembered by posterity as a Shakespearian critic or
commentator. He was a Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's, and appears to
have had what Dibdin describes as 'his foragers, his jackalls, and his
_avant-couriers_,' who picked up for him every item of interest in his
particular lines. As becomes the true bibliophile, he was peculiarly
indifferent to his dress, but he was a scholar of great abilities. A
glance at a priced copy of his sale catalogue is enough to turn any
book-lover green with envy. For example, his copy of Richard Barnfield's
'Encomion of Lady Pecunia, or the Praise of Money' (1598), sold for
19s., Malone being the purchaser. That copy is now in the Bodleian. In
1882, the Ouvry copy of the same book realized 100 guineas! A copy of
Milton's 'Paradise Lost' (1667), with the first title-page, sold for
11s.; a volume of twelve poems, chiefly printed by Wynkyn de Worde and
Pynson, realized 25 guineas. Each item would probably realize the
amount paid for the whole, should they again occur for sale, which is
most unlikely. Both his friends, George Steevens and Isaac Reed, were
equally zealous collectors, and each had a strong weakness for the same
groove of collecting. The library of Steevens was sold, also by King, in
1800, and the 1,943 items realized £2,740 15s.; whilst that of Reed,
sold seven years later, contained 8,957 articles, and realized £4,387.

Both Steevens and Isaac Reed call for a much more extended notice than
it is possible to give them here. Many of Steevens' books realized
twenty times the amount which he paid for them. Steevens, who was born
in 1736, resided in a retired house 'just on the rise of Hampstead
Heath,' so Dibdin tells us, the house being formerly known as the Upper
Flask Tavern, to which 'Richardson sends Clarissa in one of her escapes
from Lovelace.' Here, as Dibdin further tells us, Steevens lived,
embosomed in books, shrubs, and trees. 'His habits were indeed peculiar;
not much to be envied or imitated, as they sometimes betrayed the
flights of a madman, and sometimes the asperities of the cynic. His
attachments were warm, but fickle, both in choice and duration.' Several
of his letters are printed in Dibdin's 'Bibliomania' (edit. 1842), in
which will also be found a long series of extracts from the sale
catalogue of his library. There were nearly fifty copies of the first or
early quartos of the Shakespearian plays, which were knocked down at
prices varying from 5s. to, in a few instances, over £20. The first,
second, third and fourth folios realized £22, £18 18s., £8 8s., and £2
12s. 6d., respectively! Isaac Reed was in many ways a remarkable man. He
was the son of a baker in the parish of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West. Born
in 1742, he commenced professional life as a solicitor, which he soon
abandoned for the more congenial pursuit of literature. His knowledge of
English literature was unbounded, and the dispersal of his remarkable
library was one of the wonders of the year 1807. He was for over forty
years a diligent collector, and few days passed in that period which did
not witness an addition to his library. He died at his chambers in
Staple Inn. 'I have been almost daily at a book-auction,' writes
Malone--'the library of the late Mr. Reed, the last Shakespearian,
except myself, where my purse has been drained as usual. But what I have
purchased are chiefly books of my own trade. There is hardly a library
of this kind now left, except my own and Mr. Bindley's, neither of us
having the least desire to succeed the other in his peculiar species of
literary wealth.'

[Illustration: _St. Bernard's Seal._]


FOOTNOTES:

[27:A] In Hearne's 'Diary,' published by the Oxford Historical Society,
there is a very quaint note about the Duke of Lauderdale, who is
described as 'a Curious Collector of Books, and when in London would
very often go to y{e} Booksellers shops and pick up w{t} curious Books
he could meet with; but y{t} in his Elder years he lost much of his
Learning by minding too much Politicks.'

[27:B] At the Cambridge University Library there are some very
interesting diaries of this famous book-lover, styled 'Father of Black
Letter Collectors,' chiefly relating to the purchases of books. All the
more important facts have been published in the pages of the
_Bibliographer_.




[Illustration]

FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW.


I.

IN few phases of human action are the foibles and preferences of
individuals more completely imbricated than in that of book-collecting.
Widely different as were the book-hunters' fancies at the beginning and
at the end of the eighteenth century, yet it would not be possible to
draw a hard and fast line. For the greater part of that time the
classics of every description and of every degree of unimportance held
their own. Reluctant, therefore, to abandon the chief stimulant of their
earlier book-hunting careers, many collectors still took a keen interest
in their _primi pensieri_. But their real passion found a vent in other
and less beaten directions. In addition to this, during the eighteenth
century a large number of small working libraries were formed by men who
_used_ books. Henry Fielding, Goldsmith, Dr. Johnson, David Hume,
Smollett, Gibbon, Pope, and many others, are essentially figures in the
history of book-hunting in London, but they had neither the means nor,
so far as we are aware, the inclination to indulge in book-collecting as
a mere fashionable hobby. Mr. Austin Dobson has lately published an
interesting account of Fielding's library, in which he proves not only
that Fielding had been a fervent student of the classics in his youth
and that he remained a voracious reader through life, but that he made
good use of a large collection of Greek and Latin authors, which was
sold at his death.

[Illustration: _Mr. Austin Dobson._

From a photograph by E. C. Porter, Ealing.]

The eighteenth century may be regarded as the Augustan age so far as
book-hunting in London is concerned. A large percentage of the most
famous collections were either formed, or the collectors themselves were
either born or died, in that period. The Beckford and Hamilton, the
Heber, the Sunderland, the Althorp, and the King's Library, all had
their origins prior to 1800.

Richard Heber (1773-1833), with all his vast knowledge, learning, and
accomplishments, was a bibliomaniac in the more unpleasant sense of the
word. No confirmed drunkard, no incurable opium-eater, ever had less
self-control than Heber had. To him, to see a book was to possess it.
Cicero has said that the heart into which the love of gold has entered
is shut to every other feeling. Heber was very wealthy, so that with him
the love of books blinded him to almost everything else. He began to
collect when at Oxford, chiefly classics for the purpose of study. He is
said to have caught the disease from Bindley, the veteran collector, who
began book-hunting early in the last century. Having one day
accidentally met with a copy of Henry Peacham's 'Valley of Varietie,'
1638, which professed to give 'rare passages out of antiquity,' etc., he
showed it to Bindley, who described it as 'rather a curious book.' Why
such an incident should have set Heber on his terrible career history
telleth not. Under the name of 'Atticus,' Dibdin, who knew Heber well,
has described him in this fashion: 'Atticus unites all the activity of
De Witt and Lomenie, with the retentiveness of Magliabechi, and the
learning of Le Long. . . . Yet Atticus doth sometimes sadly err. He has
now and then an ungovernable passion to possess more copies of a book
than there were ever parties to a deed or stamina to a plant;
and therefore, I cannot call him a "duplicate" or a triplicate
collector. . . . But he atones for this by being liberal in the loan of
his volumes. The learned and curious, whether rich or poor, have always
free access to his library.' Heber's own explanation of this plurality
of purchase was cast somewhat in this fashion: 'Why, you see, sir, no
man can comfortably do without _three_ copies of a book. One he must
have for his show copy, and he will probably keep it at his country
house. Another he will require for his own use and reference; and unless
he is inclined to part with this, which is very inconvenient, or risk
the injury of his best copy, he must needs have a third at the service
of his friends.' The late Mr. Edward Solly was also a pluralist in the
matter of books, and had even six or seven copies of a large number of
works. He justified himself on the plea that he liked to have one to
read, one to make notes in, another with notes by a previous owner, one
in a choice binding, a 'tall' copy, a short ditto, and so forth. So far,
however, as Heber is concerned, no one could be more generous than he in
lending books. This might be proved from a dozen different sources,
including the lengthy introduction 'To Richard Heber, Esq.,' to the
sixth canto of Scott's 'Marmion':

     'But why such instances to you,
      Who, in an instant, can renew
      Your treasured hoards of various lore,
      And furnish twenty thousand more?
      Hoards, not like theirs whose volumes rest
      Like treasures in the Franch'mont chest,
      While gripple owners still refuse
      To others what they cannot use:
      Give them the priest's whole century,
      They shall not spell you letters three;
      Their pleasure in the books the same
      The magpie takes in pilfer'd gem.
      Thy volumes, open as thy heart,
      Delight, amusement, science, art,
      To every ear and eye impart;
      Yet who of all who thus employ them,
      Can, like their owner's self, enjoy them?'

In addition to this reference, Scott, in one of his letters, speaks of
'Heber the magnificent, whose library and cellar are so superior to all
others in the world.' Frequent mention is made of Heber in the notes to
the Waverley novels. At one period of his life Heber was a Member of
Parliament, and throughout his career it seems that he found recreation
from the sport of collecting in the sport of the fields. He has been
known to take a journey of four or five hundred miles to obtain a rare
volume, 'fearful to trust to a mere commission.' He bought by all
methods, in all places, and at all times, a single purchase on one
occasion being an entire library of 30,000 volumes. Curiously enough, he
disliked large-paper copies, on account of the space they filled. When
he died, he had eight houses full of books--two in London, one in
Oxford, and others at Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent, besides
smaller collections in Germany. When sold, the number of lots was
52,000, and of volumes about 147,000, and the total amount realized
£57,000, or about two-thirds of the original expenditure. The sale,
which commenced in 1834, lasted over several years, and the catalogue
alone comprises six thick octavo volumes. He is described as a tall,
strong, well-made man.

Writing to Sir Egerton Brydges, the Rev. A. Dyce observes concerning
Heber's death: 'Poor man! He expired at Pimlico,[47:A] in the midst of
his rare property, without a friend to close his eyes, and from all I
have heard I am led to believe that he died broken-hearted. He had been
ailing some time, but took no care of himself, and seemed, indeed, to
court death. Yet his ruling passion was strong to the last. The morning
he died he wrote out some memoranda for Thorpe about books which he
wished to be purchased for him' (Fitzgerald, 'The Book-Fancier,' p.
230).

In noticing Scott's edition of Dryden, and in alluding to the help which
Scott obtained from Heber and Bindley, the _Edinburgh Review_ speaks of
the two as 'gentlemen in whom the love of collecting, which is an
amusement to others, assumes the dignity of a virtue, because it gives
ampler scope to the exercise of friendship, and of a generous sympathy
with the common cause of literature.'

[Illustration: _William Beckford, Book-collector._]

William Beckford (1761-1844) and the tenth Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852),
for several reasons, may be bracketed together as book-collectors. Each
was a remarkable man in several respects. William Beckford, the author
of 'Vathek' and the owner of Fonthill, was a universal collector. No
less enthusiastic in amassing pictures and objects of art than books,
he never scrupled to sell anything and everything except his books,
which he dearly loved. A man who could draw eulogy from Byron could not
have been an ordinary person. Fonthill and its treasures were announced
for sale in September, 1822, the auctioneer being James Christie, the
catalogue being in quarto size, and comprising ninety-five pages. The
auction, however, did not take place, but the collection was sold _en
masse_ to a Mr. John Farquhar for £330,000, Beckford reserving, however,
some of his choicest books, pictures, and curiosities. In the following
year the whole collection was dispersed by Phillips, the auctioneer, the
sale occupying thirty-seven days. With the money he received from
Farquhar, Beckford purchased annuities and land near Bath. He united two
houses in the Royal Crescent by a flying gallery extending over the
road, and his dwelling became one vast library. He added to his
collection up to his last days, and obtained many books at Charles
Nodier's sale. Beckford was one of the greatest book-enthusiasts that
ever lived. His passion was more particularly for Aldines, and other
early books bearing the insignia of celebrities, such as Frances I.,
Henri et Diane, and De Thou, and especially of choice old morocco
bindings by Desseuil, Padeloup, and Derome. He was especially strong in
old French and Italian books, generically classified as _facetiæ_.
Beckford would read for days and weeks at a stretch, with no more
recreation than an occasional ride. That he read his books there is
ample testimony, for at his sale one lot comprised seven folio volumes
of transcripts from the autograph notes written by him on the fly-leaves
of the various works in his library. For example, to the copy of Peter
Beckford's 'Familiar Letters from Italy,' 1805, he concludes five pages
of notes with, 'This book has at least some merit. The language is
simple; an ill-natured person might add, and the thoughts not less so.'
In Brasbridge's 'Fruits of Experience,' 1824, he writes: 'They who like
hog-wash--and there are amateurs for anything--will not turn away
disappointed or disgusted with this book, but relish the stale, trashy
anecdotes it contains, and gobble them up with avidity.' After
Beckford's death, Henry G. Bohn offered £30,000 for the whole library;
but Beckford's second daughter, who married the Duke of Hamilton,
refused to sanction the sale. It, however, came under the hammer at
Sotheby's, 1881-1884, in four parts of twelve days each, the net result
being £73,551 18s.

The tenth Duke of Hamilton was one of the most distinguished
bibliophiles of his time, and commenced purchasing whilst yet Marquis of
Douglas. A large portion of his library was collected in Italy and
various parts of the Continent, whilst the collection of Greek and Latin
manuscripts which he obtained when on a diplomatic mission to Russia
formed an unrivalled series of monuments of early art. In 1810 he
married Susanna Beckford, and at her father's death the whole of his
splendid library came into his possession. The two collections, however,
were kept quite distinct. The Hamilton collection of printed books was
sold at Sotheby's in May, 1884, the eight days realizing £12,892 12s.
6d. The most important feature of the library, however, was the
magnificent collection of MSS. which the Prussian Government secured by
private treaty--through the intermediary, it is understood, of the
Empress Frederick--for £70,000. In May, 1889, those which the
authorities decided not to retain for the Royal Museum at Berlin were
transferred to Messrs. Sotheby's, and ninety-one lots realized the total
of £15,189 15s. 6d. The gems of the collection were a magnificent volume
of the Golden Gospels in Latin of the eighth century, formerly a gift to
Henry VIII., which sold for £1,500--a London bookseller once offered
£5,000 for this book--and a magnificent MS. of Boccaccio, 'Les Illustres
Malheureux,' on vellum, 321 leaves, decorated with eighty-four exquisite
miniatures, which sold for £1,700. It may be mentioned that a large
number of the Beckford and Hamilton books were purchased through the
late H. G. Bohn.

[Illustration: _George John, Earl Spencer._]

The Althorp Library, now in the possession of Mrs. Rylands, of
Manchester, was formed by George John, Earl Spencer (1758-1834),
between 1790 and 1820. Until its recent removal from Althorp it was the
finest private library in existence. In 1790 Lord Spencer acquired the
very fine and select library of Count Rewiczki, the Emperor Joseph's
Ambassador in London, for about £2,500, and for the next thirty years
the Earl was continually hunting after books in the sale-rooms and
booksellers' shops. The story of the Althorp Library has been so
repeatedly told, from the time of its first librarian, the devil-hunting
Thomas Frognall Dibdin--whose flatulent and sycophantic records are not
to be taken as mirroring the infinitely superior intellect and taste of
his employer--down to the present day, that any further description is
almost superfluous. Besides this, the library is one which will soon be
open to all. We may, however, mention a point which is of great
interest in the study of books as an investment. It may reasonably be
doubted whether the Althorp Library cost its founder much over £100,000;
it is generally understood that the price paid for it in 1892 was not
far short of £250,000.

[Illustration: _John, Duke of Roxburghe, Book-collector._]

Contemporaneously with the formation of the Althorp Collection, the Duke
of Roxburghe built a library, which was one of the finest and most
perfect ever got together. The Duke turned book-hunter through a love
affair, it is said. He was to have been married to the eldest daughter
of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; but when this lady's sister was
selected as a wife for George III., the proposed marriage was deemed
impolitic, and consequently the Duke remained single. The Duke himself
is said to have traced his passion for books to the famous dinner given
by his father, the second Duke, at which Lords Oxford and Sunderland
were present, and at which the celebrated copy of the Valdarfer
Boccaccio was produced. The history of this incident is told in our
chapter on Book-sales, and need not be here more specifically referred
to. The Duke was a mighty hunter, not only of books, but of deer and
wild swans. So far as books are concerned, his great specialities were
Old English literature, Italian poetry, and romances of the Round Table;
and as the first and last of these have increased in value as years have
gone by, it will be seen that the Duke was wise in his generation.
Indeed, we have it on the best authority that the aggregate outlay on
the Roxburghe Library did not exceed £4,000, whilst in the course of
little more than twenty years it produced over £23,397, the sale taking
place in June, 1812. The Duke of Roxburghe and Lord Spencer were not
averse to a little understanding of the nature of a 'knock-out,' for in
one of the Althorp Caxtons Lord Spencer has written: 'The Duke and I had
agreed not to oppose one another at the [George Mason] sale, but after
the book [a Caxton] was bought, to toss up who should win it, when I
lost it. I bought it at the Roxburghe sale on the 17 of June, 1812, for
£215 5s.'

[Illustration: _A corner in the Althorp Library._]

Yet another distinguished book-collector of the same period calls for
notice. George III. formed a splendid library out of his own private
purse and at a cost of £130,000. This library is now a part of the
British Museum. A library such as that of George III. gives very little
idea of a man's real tastes for books. The King availed himself of the
accumulated wisdom, not only of Barnard (who was his librarian for
nearly half a century), but of three or four other experts, among whom
was Dr. Johnson. The King's everyday tastes, however, may be gathered
from the subjoined list of books, which he wished to have on his visit
to Weymouth in 1795. He desired what he called 'a closet library' for a
watering-place; he wrote to his bookseller for the following works: the
Bible; the 'Whole Duty of Man'; the 'Annual Register,' 25 volumes;
Rapin's 'History of England,' 21 volumes, 1757; Millot's 'Elémens de
l'Histoire de France,' 1770; Voltaire's 'Siècles' of Louis XIV. and
Louis XV.; Blackstone's 'Commentaries,' 4 volumes; R. Burn's 'Justice of
Peace and Parish Officer,' 4 volumes; an abridgment of Dr. Johnson's
Dictionary; Boyer's 'Dictionnaire François et Anglais'; Johnson's
'Poets,' 68 volumes; Dodsley's 'Poems,' 11 volumes; Nichols' 'Poems,' 8
volumes; Steevens' 'Shakespeare'; 'Oeuvres' of Destouches, 5 volumes;
and the 'Works' of Sir William Temple, 4 volumes; of Addison, 4 volumes,
and Swift, 24 volumes. These books can scarcely be regarded as light
literature, and, if anything, calculated to add to the deadly dulness of
a seaside retreat at the end of the last century. However, the selection
is George III.'s, and must be respected as such.

The number of men who were prowling about London during the middle and
latter part of the last century after books is only less great than the
variety of tastes which they evinced. We have, for example, two such
turbulent spirits as John Horne Tooke and John Wilkes, M.P. Parson
Horne's (he subsequently assumed the name of his patron, William Tooke)
collection did not, as Dibdin has observed, contain a single edition of
the Bible; but it included seven examples of Wynkyn de Worde's press and
many other rare books. Eight hundred and thirteen lots realized the then
high amount of £1,250 when sold at King and Lochée's in 1813. John
Wilkes' books were sold at Sotheby's in 1802. If less notorious, many
equally enthusiastic book-collectors were hunting the highways and
byways of London. Here, for example, is a little anecdote relative to
one of these:

When the splendid folio edition of Cæsar's 'Commentaries,' by Clarke,
published for the express purpose of being presented to the great Duke
of Marlborough, came under the hammer at the sale (in 1781) of Topham
Beauclerk's library for £44, it was accompanied by an anecdote relating
to the method in which it had been acquired. Upon the death of an
officer to whom the book belonged, his mother, being informed that it
was of some value, wished to dispose of it, and, being told that Mr.
Topham Beauclerk (who is said to have but once departed from his
inflexible rule of never lending a book) was a proper person to offer it
to, she waited on him for that purpose. He asked what she required for
it, and, being answered £4 4s., took it without hesitation, though
unacquainted with the real value of the book. Being desirous, however,
of information with respect to the nature of the purchase he had made,
he went to an eminent bookseller's, and inquired what he would give for
such a book. The bookseller replied £17 17s. Mr. Beauclerk went
immediately to the person who sold him the book, and, telling her that
she had been mistaken in its value, not only gave her the additional 13
guineas, but also generously bestowed a further gratuity on her. Few
bargain-hunters would have felt called upon to act as Beauclerk[55:A]
did. Here is another anecdote of a contemporary book-hunter:

Nichols states that Mr. David Papillon (who died in 1762), a gentleman
of fortune and literary taste, as well as a good antiquary, contracted
with Osborne to furnish him with £100 worth of books, at 3d. apiece. The
only conditions were, that they should be perfect, and that there
should be no duplicate. Osborne was highly pleased with his bargain,
and the first great purchase he made, he sent Mr. Papillon a large
quantity; but in the next purchase he found he could send but few, and
the next still fewer. Not willing, however, to give up, he sent books
worth 5s. apiece, and at last was forced to go and beg to be let off the
contract. Eight thousand books would have been wanted!

An interesting collector, at once the type of a country gentleman and of
a true bibliophile, was Sir John Englis Dolben (1750-1837), of Finedon
Hall, Northamptonshire. He was educated at Westminster School,
proceeding thence to Christ Church in 1768. Previously to his final
retirement into the country, he lingered with much affection about the
haunts of his youthful studies. He carried so many volumes about with
him in his numerous and capacious pockets that he appeared like a
walking library, and his memory, particularly in classical quotations,
was equally richly stored. This is one side of the picture. This is the
other side, in which we get a view of the man-about-town collector in
the person of Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808), the hydrographer to the
Admiralty and to the East India Company: 'His yellow antiquarian chariot
seemed to be immovably fixed in the street, just opposite the
entrance-door of the long passage leading to the sale-room of Messrs.
King and Lochée, in King Street, Covent Garden; and towards the bottom
of the table, in the sale-room, Mr. Dalrymple used to sit, a cane in his
hand, his hat always upon his head, a thin, slightly-twisted queue, and
silver hairs that hardly shaded his temple. . . . His biddings were
usually silent, accompanied by the elevation and fall of his cane, or by
an abrupt nod of the head.'

[Illustration: _Michael Wodhull, Book-collector._]

The Osterley Park Library, sold by order of the seventh Earl of Jersey
at Sotheby's in 1885, was commenced in the last century, the original
founder being Bryan Fairfax, who died in 1747. His books came into the
hands of Alderman Child, who was not only a book-collector, but
inherited Lord Mavor Child's books. The fifth Earl of Jersey married
Mr. Child's grand-daughter in 1804. Two mighty hunters of the old
school may be here briefly mentioned--John Towneley and Michael Wodhull,
the poet, both of whose collections were dispersed in several portions,
partly at the beginning of the present century, and partly within quite
recent times. The founder of the 'Bibliotheca Towneleiana' was for a
long period of years an ardent collector, his favourite studies being
English history, topography, and portraits. The great gem of his
collection was the splendid 'Vita Christi,' gorgeously ornamented with
full-page paintings, and with miniatures superbly executed in colours,
heightened with gold, by Giulio Clovio, in the finest style of Italian
art. This MS. was executed for Alexander, Cardinal Farnese, and
presented to Pope Paul III. It was purchased abroad by a Mr. Champernoun
for an inconsiderable sum, and cost Mr. Towneley 400 guineas. At its
sale in 1883 it realized £2,050. Two portions of the Towneley Library
were dispersed by Evans in 1814-15 (seventeen days), and realized over
£8,597, and other portions were sold in 1816 and 1817. Towneley himself
died in May, 1813, aged eighty-two. The remainder of his extensive
collection was sold at Sotheby's in 1883 (ten days). Wodhull, who died
November 10, 1816, aged seventy-six, had two sales during his lifetime,
first in 1801 (chiefly duplicates), and secondly in 1803 (chiefly Greek
and Roman classics). He, however, reserved for himself a library of
about 4,000, which, passing into the possession of Mr. F. E. Severne,
M.P., was sold at Sotheby's in January, 1886, and realized a total of
£11,973 4s. 6d. He is the Orlando of Dibdin's 'Bibliomania.' The Greek
and Roman classics formed the chief attraction of this _post-mortem_
sale, which is generally regarded as one of the most important of its
kind held during recent years. Most of the prizes were picked up in
France after 1803, and it was during one of his book-hunting expeditions
in Paris that Wodhull was detained by Napoleon.

Two other 'fashionable' or titled collectors may be here grouped
together. The fine library formed by William, Marquis of Lansdowne was
dispersed by Leigh and Sotheby in thirty-one days, beginning with
January 6, 1806, the 6,530 lots realizing £6,701 2s. 6d. The highest
amount paid for a single lot was for a very rare collection of tracts,
documents, and pamphlets, in over 280 volumes, illustrating the history
of the French Revolution, together with forty-nine volumes relative to
the transactions in the Low Countries between the years 1787 and 1792,
and their separation from the House of Austria. Wynkyn de Worde's
'Rycharde Cure de Lyon,' 1528, sold for £47 5s.; and a curious
collection of 'Masks' and 'Triumphs,' of the early seventeenth century,
mostly by Ben Jonson, realized £40. As a book-collector Sir Mark
Masterman Sykes is a much better remembered figure in the annals of
book-hunting than that of the Marquis of Lansdowne. The Sykes library
contained a number of the _editiones principes_ of the classics, some on
vellum, and also a number of Aldines in the most perfect condition.
There were also many highly curious and very rare pieces of early
English poetry. The collection was sold at Evans's in 1824, and the gems
of the collection were a copy of the Mazarin Bible, and the Latin
Psalter, 1459, to which full reference is made in a subsequent chapter.


II.

The history of literature, it is said, teaches us to consider its
decline only as the development of a great principle of succession by
which the treasures of the mind are circulated and equalized; as shoots
by which the stream of improvement is forcibly directed into new
channels, to fertilize new soils and awaken new capabilities. The
history of book-collecting teaches us a similar lesson. The love which
so often amounted to a positive passion for the exquisite productions of
the Age of Illuminated Manuscripts, all but died with the introduction
of the printing-press, which in reality was but a continuation of the
old art in a new form. And so on, down through the successive decades
and generations of the past four centuries, the decline--but not the
death, for such a term cannot be applied to any phase of
book-collecting--of one particular aspect of the hobby has synchronized
with the birth of several others, sometimes more worthy, and at others
less. An exhaustive inquiry into the various and manifold changes
through which the human mind passed alone might account for these
various developments, which it is not the intention of the present
writer on this occasion to analyze.

The rise and progress of what Sir Egerton Brydges calls 'the
black-letter mania' gave the death-blow to the long-cherished school of
poetry of which Pope may be taken as the most distinguished exponent.
'Men of loftier taste and bolder fancy early remonstrated against this
chilling confinement of the noblest, the most aspiring, and most
expansive of all the Arts. . . . It was not till the commotion of Europe
broke the chain of indolence and insipid effeminacy that the stronger
passions of readers required again to be stimulated and exercised and
soothed, and that the minor charms of correctness were sacrificed to the
ardent efforts of uncontrolled and unfearing genius. The authors of this
class began to look back for their materials to an age of hazardous
freedom, and copious and untutored eloquence: an age in which the world
of words and free and native ideas was not contracted and blighted by
technical critics and cold and fastidious scholars.' To abandon the
abstract for the more matter-of-fact details of sober history, the mania
to which Brydges alludes may be said to date itself from the spring of
1773. The occasion was the sale in London of the library of James West,
President of the Royal Society. George Nicol, the bookseller, was an
extensive purchaser at this sale for the King, for whom, indeed, he
acted in a similar capacity up to the last. Nicol told Dibdin 'with his
usual pleasantry and point, that he got abused in the public papers, by
Almon and others, for having purchased nearly the whole of the Caxtonian
volumes in this collection for his Majesty's library. It was said abroad
that a Scotchman had lavished away the King's money in buying old
black-letter books.' The absurdity of this report was soon proved at
subsequent sales. Dibdin adds, as a circumstance highly honourable to
the King, that 'his Majesty, in his directions to Mr. Nicol, forbade any
competition with those purchasers who wanted books of science and
_belles lettres_ for their own progressive or literary pursuits; thus
using the power of his purse in a manner at once merciful and wise.'

[Illustration: _George Nicol, the King's Bookseller._]

The impetus which book-collecting, and more particularly the section to
which we have just referred, received by the dispersal of the West
Library gathered in force as time went on, reaching its climax with the
Roxburghe sale thirty-nine years afterwards. The enthusiasm culminated
in a club--the Roxburghe, which still flourishes. The warfare (at
Roxburghe House, St. James's Square), as Mr. Silvanus Urban has
recorded, was equalled only by the courage and gallantry displayed on
the plains of Salamanca about the same period. 'As a pillar, or other
similar memorial, could not be conveniently erected to mark the spot
where so many bibliographical champions fought and conquered, another
method was adopted to record their fame, and perpetuate this brilliant
epoch in literary annals. Accordingly, a phalanx of the most hardy
veterans has been enrolled under the banner of the far-famed Valdarfer's
Boccaccio of 1471. . . . The first anniversary meeting of this noble
band was celebrated at the St. Alban's Tavern [St. Alban's Street, now
Waterloo Place] on Thursday, June 17, 1813, being the memorable day on
which the before-mentioned Boccaccio was sold for £2,260. The chair was
taken by Earl Spencer (perpetual president of the club), supported by
Lords Morpeth and Gower, and the following gentlemen,[61:A] viz., Sir E.
Brydges, Messrs. W. Bentham, W. Bolland, J. Dent, T. F. Dibdin
(vice-president), Francis Freeling, Henry Freeling, Joseph Hazlewood,
Richard Heber, Thomas C. Heber, G. Isted, R. Lang, J. H. Markland, J. D.
Phelps, T. Ponton, junior, J. Towneley, E. V. Utterson, and R.
Wilbraham. Upon the cloth being removed, the following appropriate
toasts were delivered from the chair:

      1. The cause of Bibliomania all over the world.

      2. The immortal memory of Christopher Valdarfer,
           the printer of the Boccaccio of 1471.

      3. The immortal memory of William Caxton, first
           English printer.

      4. The immortal memory of Wynkyn de Worde.

      5. The immortal memory of Richard Pynson.

      6. The immortal memory of Julian Notary.

      7. The immortal memory of William Faques.

      8. The immortal memory of the Aldine family.

      9. The immortal memory of the Stephenses.

     10. The immortal memory of John, Duke of Roxburghe.

'After these the health of the noble president was proposed, and
received by the company standing, with three times three. Then followed
the health of the worthy vice-president (proposed by Mr. Heber),
which, it is scarcely necessary to observe, was drunk with similar
honours. . . . The president was succeeded in the chair by Lord Gower,
who, at midnight, yielded to Mr. Dent; and that gentleman gave way to
the Prince of Bibliomaniacs, Mr. Heber. Though the night, or rather the
morning, wore apace, it was not likely that a seat so occupied would be
speedily deserted; accordingly, the "regal purple stream" ceased not to
flow till "Morning oped her golden gates," or, in plain terms, till past
four o'clock.' Such is a brief account of the Roxburghe Club, which is
limited to thirty-one members, one black ball being fatal to the
candidate who offers himself for a vacancy, and each member in his
annual turn has to print a book or pamphlet, and to present to his
fellow-members a copy. Before making any further reference to the
_personnel_ of the Roxburghe Club, we quote, from a literary journal of
1823, the following trenchant paragraph, _à propos_ of a similar club in
Scotland:

'BIBLIOMANIA.--This most ridiculous of all the affectations of the day
has lately exhibited another instance of its diffusion, in the
establishment of a _Roxburghe[62:A] Club_ in Edinburgh. Its object, we
are told, "is the republication of scarce and valuable tracts,
especially poetry."--"Republication!" In what manner? Commonsense forbid
that the system of the London Roxburghe Club be adopted. Of this there
are some four-and-twenty members or so, who dine together a certain
number of times in the year, and each member in his turn republishes
some old tract at his own expense. There are just so many copies printed
as there are members of the club, and one copy is presented to each. It
is evident that no sort of good can be effected by this system, and,
indeed, there has not yet resulted any benefit to the literature of the
country from the Roxburghe Club. They have not published a single book
of any conceivable merit. The truth is that the members, for the most
part, are a set of persons of no true taste, of no proper notion of
learning and its uses--very considerable persons in point of wealth, but
very _so-so_ in point of intellect.'

[Illustration: _Thomas Frognall Dibdin, Bibliographer._]

The primary aim and object of the Roxburghe Club were clearly enough
indicated in the first list of members, for the association of men with
kindred tastes is at all times a highly commendable one. The Roxburghe
Club might have sustained its _raison d'être_, if it had drawn the line
at such men as Thomas Frognall Dibdin and Joseph Hazlewood. The
foregoing extract from the _Museum_ of 1823 exactly indicates the
position which the club at that time held in public estimation. It had
degenerated into a mere drinking and gormandizing association, alike a
disgrace to its more respectable members and an insult to the nobleman
whose name it was dragging through the mire. Those who have an
opportunity of consulting the _Athenæum_ for 1834 will find, in the
first four issues of January, one of the most scathing exposures to
which any institution has ever been subjected. Hazlewood had died, and
his books came into the sale-room. Never had the adage of 'Dead men tell
no tales' been more completely falsified. Hazlewood, who does not seem
to have been unpleasantly particular in telling the truth when living,
told it with a vengeance after his death; for among his papers there was
a bundle entitled 'Roxburghe Revels,' which Thorpe purchased for £40,
the editor of the _Athenæum_ being the under-bidder. A few days
afterwards, and for the weighty consideration of a £10 note profit, the
lot passed into the hands of Mr. Dilke, and the articles to which we
have referred followed.[64:A] If anything could have made the deceased
Joseph turn in his grave, it would have been the attention which he
received at the unsparing hands of Mr. Dilke. The excellent Mr. Dibdin
survived the exposure several years. The castigation proved beneficial
to the club; and if its revelries were no less boisterous than
heretofore, it at all events circulated among its members books worthy
of the name of Roxburghe, and edited in a scholarly manner. The club
still flourishes, with the Marquis of Salisbury as its president, and
the list of its members will be found in our chapter on 'Modern
Collectors.'

[Illustration: _Rev. C. Mordaunt Cracherode, M.A., Book-collector._]

One of the mighty book-hunters of the last century was the Rev. Clayton
Mordaunt Cracherode (whose father went out as a commander of marines in
Anson's ship, and whose share in the prize-money made him a wealthy
man), who died on April 6, 1799, in his seventieth year. His splendid
library now forms a part of the British Museum. It contains the most
choice copies in classical and Biblical literature, and many of these
are on vellum. His collection of editions of the fifteenth century Mr.
Cracherode used modestly to call a 'specimen' one; 'they form perhaps
the most perfect _collana_ or necklace ever strung by one man.' Several
of the books formerly belonged to Grolier. His library was valued at
£10,000 at or about the time of his death; it would probably now realize
considerably over ten times that amount if submitted to auction. The
value of his prints was placed at £5,000. Cracherode was an excellent
scholar, and an amiable; his passion for collecting was strong even in
death, for whilst he was at the last extremity his agent was making
purchases for him. He was one of the most constant habitués of Tom
Payne's, and at his final visit he put an Edinburgh Terence in one
pocket and a large-paper Cebes in the other. His house was in Queen
Square, Westminster, overlooking St. James's Park.

Reverting once more to the change which had been effected in the fancies
of book-collectors, James Bindley, whose library was sold after his
decease in 1819, and James Perry, who died in 1821, may be regarded as
typical collectors of the transition period. Both are essentially London
book-hunters--the former was an official in the Stamp Office, and the
latter was, _inter alia_, the editor of the _Morning Chronicle_.
Bindley, to whom John Nichols dedicated his 'Literary Anecdotes,' was a
book-hunter who made very practical use of his scholarly tastes and
ample means. He haunted the bookstalls and shops with the pertinacity of
a tax-gatherer, and if his original expenditure were placed by the side
of the total which his collection of books brought after his death, no
more convincing arguments in favour of book-hunting could possibly be
needed. Bindley is the 'Leontes' of Dibdin's 'Bibliographical
Decameron,' and his collection of poetical rarities of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries was one of the most remarkable which had ever been
got together. Not many of the items had cost him more than a few
shillings each, and they realized almost as many pounds as he had paid
shillings. Perry was a journalist first and a book-collector afterwards,
but in many respects there was a great similarity in the tastes of the
two rival bibliophiles. Perry's was the more extensive collection--it
was sold in four parts, 1822-23--and perhaps on the whole much more
generally interesting. Evans, the auctioneer, described it as 'an
extraordinary assemblage of curious books, Early English poetry, old
tracts and miscellaneous literature.' The _cheval de bataille_ of the
fourth part consisted of 'a most Curious, Interesting and
Extraordinarily Extensive Assemblage of Political and Historical
Pamphlets of the Last and Present Century.' This collection was
comprised in thirty-five bundles. Perry made a speciality of facetiæ,
pamphlets on the French Revolution, and Defoe's works, but the two
cornerstones of his library were a copy of the Mazarin Bible and a First
Folio Shakespeare.

Among the many book-collectors whose careers link the past century with
the present, few are more worthy of notice than Francis Douce, who died
in the spring of 1834, aged seventy-seven. He was for a short time
Keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum. His fortune was much increased
by being left one of the residuary legatees of Nollekens, the
sculptor--to the extent, in fact, of £50,000. Dibdin, who was for many
years a near neighbour and intimate friend at Kensington, describes
Douce's library as 'eminently rich and curious . . . not a book but what
had its fly-leaf written upon. In short, no man ever lived so much with,
and so entirely for, his books as did he.' Douce is the Prospero of the
'Bibliomania.' His books he bequeathed to the Bodleian, and his MSS. to
the British Museum, the stipulation in the latter case being that they
are not to be opened until 1900! In manners and appearance Douce was
singular and strange, rough to strangers, but gentle and kind to those
who knew him intimately. He was of the old school as regards dress,
wearing as he did a little flaxen wig, an old-fashioned square-cut coat,
with what M. Jacob calls 'quarto pockets.' Several of his letters are
printed in Dibdin's 'Literary Recollections.'

Two other distinguished book-collectors, contemporary with Douce, and,
like him, benefactors to the Bodleian, may be mentioned here--Richard
Gough (1739-1809), the antiquary; and Edmond Malone (1741-1812), the
Shakespearian scholar. Gough's gift consisted of the topographical
portion of his library; the remainder, comprising 4,373 lots, realizing
the total of £3,552, came under the hammer at Leigh and Sotheby's in
1810, realizing what were then considered very fancy prices (a selection
of which are given in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, lxxx., part ii.). The
Malone collection, which became the property of the Bodleian through the
influence of Lord Sunderlin in 1815, comprised what the collector
himself describes as 'the most curious, valuable, and extensive
collection ever assembled of ancient English plays and poetry.' It would
probably be impossible now to form another such collection. Malone told
Caldwell, who repeats the remarkable fact, that he had procured every
dramatic piece mentioned by Langbaine, excepting four or five--the
advantage, observes that gentleman, of living in London. The number of
volumes amounts to about 3,200. As his biographer, Sir James Prior, has
pointed out, his collection in the Bodleian remains distinct, and is
creditable 'alike to the industry, taste, and patience by which it was
brought together.' And further: 'None of his predecessors have attempted
what he accomplished. Few of his successors have, on most points, added
materially to our knowledge.' Yet a third benefactor to the Bodleian may
be conveniently mentioned here. Thomas Caldecott, who was born in 1744,
and died in 1833, was a Fellow of New College, Oxford, and afterwards a
Bencher of the Middle Temple. He resided chiefly at Dartford, and formed
a choice library of black-letter books, and the productions of the
Elizabethan period. He attacked with considerable asperity and ability
Shakespearian commentators, such as Steevens and Malone; and his rivals
did not spare his edition of two of Shakespeare's plays when they came
out. He presented the gems of his library, the Shakespeare quartos, to
the Bodleian; but the remainder of his books, including many excessively
rare and several unique pieces, came up for sale at Sotheby's in 1833,
and realized a total of £1,210 6s. 6d.

The splendid library of John Dent, of Hertford Street, sold by Evans in
1827, producing the sum of £15,040, had a curious history. The nucleus
of it was formed towards the close of the last century by Haughton
James, who, in a moment of conviviality, and without a due consideration
of its true value, transferred it to Robert Heathcote,[68:A] who made
several additions, and from whose possession it passed about 1807 into
that of John Dent. The sale of the Dent library is described by Dibdin
as exhibiting the 'first grand melancholy symptoms of the decay of the
Bibliomania.' The chief attraction was the Sweynheym and Pannartz Livy,
1469, on vellum, which fell (in more senses than one) under the hammer
for £262, Dent having paid £903 for it at Sir Mark Sykes' sale. Both the
purchasers, Payne and Foss, and Dibdin, made strenuous efforts to
persuade the Earl of Spencer to purchase it, but unsuccessfully; it
subsequently became the property of Grenville, and passed with his
collection into the British Museum. Dent is the Pontevallo of the
'Bibliomania,' and Baroccio of the 'Bibliographical Decameron,' and does
not seem to have been an altogether amiable specimen of the fraternity.
Canning used to say that he once found Dent deep in the study of an open
book which was upside down!

A much more genial bibliomaniac, Sir William Bolland, calls for notice;
he was one of the original members of the Roxburghe Club, which, in
fact, was first suggested at a dinner-party at his house, June 4, 1812.
He died May 14, 1840, aged sixty-eight, and his library, which comprised
2,940 lots, and realized £3,019, was sold by Evans, and included many
choice books. One of the greatest bargains which this distinguished
collector secured during his career became his property through the
medium of Benjamin Wheatley, who purchased a bundle of poetical tracts
from the Chapter Library at Lincoln for 80 guineas. When the inevitable
sale came, one of these trifles, 'The Rape of Lucrece,' alone realized
100 guineas.

George Chalmers (1742-1825), who is described as 'the most learned and
the most celebrated of all the antiquaries and historians of Scotland,'
was also one of the giant book-collectors of the present century, and
differed from the majority of collectors in being a prolific and
versatile author. At his death his nephew became the possessor of his
extensive library, but on the death of the nephew the books were placed
in the hands of Evans, who sold them in two parts, September, 1841, and
February, 1842, and realized over £4,100. The second part was very rich
in Shakespeariana, and included the 'Sonnets,' 1609, £105; 'Midsummer
Night's Dream,' 1600 (second edition), £105; and many other important
items. In the first part of the sale, Marlowe's 'Tragedie of Richard,
Duke of York,' 1595 (believed to be unique), sold for £131; and the only
perfect copy then known of Patrick Hannay's 'Nightingale,' 1622, from
the libraries of Bindley, Perry, Sykes and Rice, £13 5s. The third part
of Chalmers' library, which consisted for the most part of works
relative to Scotland, particularly in illustration of the History of
Printing in that Country, was also sold by Evans in 1842. Among other
book-collectors of this period we may mention particularly the Rev.
Henry Joseph Thomas Drury, whose library was rich in classics, all for
the most part finely bound; it came under the hammer at Evans's in 1827
(4,729 lots); Dr. Isaac Gosset, who died in 1812, in his sixty-eighth
year, and whose library, comprising 5,740 lots, realized £3,141 7s. 6d.
at Leigh and Sotheby's in 1813; the Rev. Jonathan Boucher (1738-1804),
Vicar of Epsom, who, like George Chalmers, for many years resided in
America, was, also like him, an inveterate book-collector to whom
everything in the shape of a book was welcome: his sale occupied Leigh
and Sotheby thirty-nine days, in 1806, the total being over £4,510.


III.

The history of the second and third quarters of the present century
makes mention of very few collectors of the first rank. Among the more
important of those whose libraries came under the hammer within that
period, we may specially refer to the following: William Upcott, who
started early in life as an assistant to R. H. Evans, but who in 1806
became sub-librarian of the London Institution. He was one of the first
to take up autograph-collecting, of which, indeed, he has been termed
the pioneer. He certainly collected with great advantage and knowledge,
and his vast accumulations were sold at Sotheby's in four batches
during 1846, he having died in September, 1845; John Hugh Smyth Piggott,
whose library, in three portions, was sold at the same place, 1847-54;
W. Y. Ottley, the prolific writer of books on art, 1849; W. Holgate, of
the Post Office, whose library included a number of Shakespeariana,
June, 1846; Hanrott, 1857; Sir Thomas Bernard, 1855; Isaac D'Israeli,
the author of 'Curiosities of Literature,' in 1849, and his unsparing
critic, Bolton Corney, in 1871; S. W. Singer, in four parts, 1860; J.
Orchard Halliwell (afterwards Halliwell-Phillipps), in 1856, 1857, and
1859; and the Rev. Dr. Hawtrey, part of whose books were sold, far below
their worth, in 1853, and the rest nine years later. Many of the
foregoing were literary men, who aimed rather at getting together a
useful library than one of rarities. The sale of all such libraries
makes a very sorry show beside that of the more ostentatious
collections. For instance, the books which Macaulay used with such
brilliant effect, and including among them an extraordinary number of
tracts, many excessively rare, only realized £426 15s. 6d., when sold in
1863 in 1,011 lots. Douglas Jerrold's little library, sold in August,
1859, in 307 lots, only fetched £173 3s. In very strong contrast to
these is the remarkable little library, formed between 1820 and 1830 by
Henry Perkins, of Hanworth Park, Feltham, a member of the brewing firm.
This collection comprised only 865 lots, but when sold at Sotheby's in
June, 1873, the total was found to be close on £26,000! There was a
copy each of the 42-line and 40-line Gutenberg Bible--the former is now
in the Huth Library, and the latter in the Ashburnham Library; several
other very early printed Bibles, including Coverdale's, Matthews', and
Cranmer's, two works printed by Caxton, with many other important books
were sold.

[Illustration: _J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps._]

The late George Daniel (who was born about 1790) may be regarded as the
connecting link between the collectors of the early part of the present
century and those of to-day. When, for example, Perry and Bindley left
off, Daniel commenced. There was no great rush after Shakespeare quartos
in the earlier part of the present century, and book-collecting for a
time ceased to be the pet hobby of wealthy members of the peerage. When
George Daniel, a critic and bibliographer of exceptional abilities,
began to collect, he soon made Shakespeare, as well as the earlier
English poets, objects of solicitude. He resided for many years in the
historic old red-brick tower at Canonbury.[72:A] The sale of Daniel's
extraordinary collection was held at Sotheby's in July, 1864, when a
First Folio, one of the finest in the world--now in the possession of
Baroness Burdett-Coutts--sold for £716 2s., and when twenty of the
Shakespeare quartos realized a total of about £3,000.

[Illustration: _Canonbury Tower, George Daniel's Residence._]

George Daniel is now remembered by but few book-collectors. Mr. W. Carew
Hazlitt knew him very well, and describes him as a retired accountant,
whose idiosyncrasy consisted of _rares morçeaux_, _bonnes bouches_,
uniques--copies of books with a _provenance_, or in jackets made for
them by Roger Payne--nay, in the original parchment or paper wrapper, or
in a bit of real mutton which certain men call sheep. He was a person
of literary tastes, and had written books in his day. But his chief
celebrity was as an acquirer of those of others, provided always that
they were old enough or rare enough. An item never passed into his
possession without at once _ipso facto_ gaining new attributes, almost
invariably worded in a holograph memorandum on the fly-leaf. Daniel was
in the market at a fortunate and peculiar juncture, just when prices
were depressed, about the time of the great Heber sale. His marvellous
gleanings came to the hammer precisely when the quarto Shakespeare, the
black-letter romance, the unique book of Elizabethan verse, had grown
worth ten times their weight in sovereigns. Sir William Tite, J. O.
Halliwell, and Henry Huth were to the front. It was in 1864. What a
wonderful sight it was! No living man had ever witnessed the like.
Copies of Shakespeare, printed from the prompters' MSS. and published at
fourpence, fetched £300 or £400. I remember old Joseph Lilly, when he
had secured the famous Ballads, which came from the Tollemaches of
Helmingham Hall, holding up the folio volume in which they were
contained in triumph as someone whom he knew entered the room. Poor
Daniel! he had no mean estimate of his treasures--what he had was always
better than what you had. Books, prints, autographs--it was all the
same. I met him one morning in Long Acre. I had bought a very fine copy
of Taylor, the Water Poet. "Oh, yes, sir," he said, "I saw it; but not
quite so fine as mine." He went up to Highgate to look through the
engravings of Charles Matthews the elder. They were all duplicates--of
course inferior ones. "Damn him, sir!" cried Matthews afterwards to a
friend; "I should like him to have had a duplicate of my wooden leg."

John Payne Collier, who was born a year before Daniel, but who lived
until 1883, was a collector with very similar tastes. He had been a
reporter on the _Morning Chronicle_, and in all probability imbibed some
of his book-collecting zeal from Perry. His book-buying and literary
career commenced, according to his own account, in 1804 or 1805, when
his father took him into the shop of Thomas Rodd, senior, on which
occasion he purchased his 'first Old English book of any value,' namely,
Wilson's 'Art of Logic,' printed by Grafton, 1551; from this he
ascertained that 'Ralf Roister Doister' was an older play than 'Gammer
Gurton's Needle,' and also that it was by Nicholas Udal, Master of Eton
School. When in Holland, in the winter of 1813-14, Collier purchased
among other books an imperfect copy of Tyndale's 'Gospel of St.
Matthew,' to which, as he says in his 'Diary,' 'the date of 1526 [1525]
has been assigned, and which seems to be the very earliest translation
into English of any portion of the New Testament. Many years
afterwards--I think in the spring of 1832--I happened to show it to
Rodd, the learned bookseller. I was at that time ignorant on the
subject, and Rodd offered me books to the value of two or three pounds
for it. I gladly accepted them.' This fragment, for which Collier paid a
florin, was sold to Mr. Grenville by Rodd for £50, and is now in the
British Museum. Writing in the _Athenæum_, January 31, 1852, he gives an
account of the origin of events which led to one of the fiercest
literary quarrels of modern times: 'A short time before the death of the
late Mr. Rodd, of Newport Street [_i.e._ early in 1849], I happened to
be in his shop when a considerable parcel of books arrived from the
country. He told me that they had been bought for him at an auction--I
think in Bedfordshire. . . . He unpacked them in my presence . . . and
there were two which attracted my attention, one being a fine copy of
Florio's "Italian Dictionary," of the edition of 1611, and the other a
much-thumbed, abused, and imperfect copy of the Second Folio of
Shakespeare, 1632. The first I did not possess, and the last I was
willing to buy, inasmuch as I apprehended it would add some missing
leaves to a copy of the same impression which I had had for some time on
my shelves. As was his usual course, Mr. Rodd required a very reasonable
price for both; for the first I remember I gave 12s. and for the last
only £1 10s. . . . On the outside of one of the covers was inscribed,
"Tho. Perkins, his booke."' Collier was vexed at finding that the volume
contained no leaves which would help him in completing the volume he
already had. He had employed another person to do the collating, and it
was not until some considerable time after, and on examining thoroughly
the volume himself, that he discovered it to contain a large series of
emendations, which Collier included in his 'Notes and Emendations to the
Text of Shakespeare's Plays,' 1853, which set the whole town by the
ears. Collier's library was dispersed at Sotheby's in 1884; it was an
unusually interesting sale, and included many very rare and curious
books.

[Illustration: _Samuel Taylor Coleridge._

From the Portrait by G. Dawe, R.A., 1812.]

Southey, Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Wordsworth, and William Hazlitt were
book-collectors of a type which deserves a niche to itself. Writing to
Coleridge in 1797, Lamb says: 'I have had thoughts of turning Quaker,
and have been reading, or am, rather, just beginning to read, a most
capital book, good thoughts in good language, William Penn's "No Cross,
no Crown." I like it immensely.' Lamb's ideas of book-marking are to be
found in his correspondence with Coleridge, in which he states that a
book reads the better when the topography of its plots and notes is
thoroughly mastered, and when we 'can trace the dirt in it, to having
read it at tea with buttered muffins, or over a pipe.' Lamb's library
consisted for the most part of tattered volumes in a dreadful state of
repair. Lamb, like Young, the poet, dog-eared his books to such an
extent that many of them would hardly close at all. From the
correspondence of Bernard Barton we get a glimpse at Lamb's cottage in
Colebrook Row, Islington--a white house with six good rooms. 'You enter
without passage into a cheerful dining-room, all studded over and rough
with old books.' Barton also writes: 'What chiefly attracted me was a
large old book-case full of books. I could but think how many long walks
must have been taken to bring them home, for there were but few that
did not bear the mark of having been bought at many a bookstall--brown,
dark-looking books, distinguished by those white tickets which told how
much their owner had given for each.'

[Illustration: _Lamb's Cottage at Colebrook Row, Islington._]

In an edition of Donne [? 1669] which belonged to Lamb, Coleridge
scrawled: 'I shall die soon, my dear Charles Lamb, and then you will not
be vexed that I have be-scribbled your book. S. T. C., 2nd May, 1811.'
Lamb was too good-natured to be a book-collector. On one occasion
William Hazlitt[77:A] sent Martin Burney to Lamb to borrow Wordsworth's
'Excursion,' and Lamb being out, Burney took it, a high-handed
proceeding which involved the borrower in a blowing-up. Coleridge at
another time helped himself to Luther's 'Table-Talk,' and this also
called forth a great outcry. A copy of Chapman's Homer, which passed
through the hands of Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge, eventually turned
up in one of Lilly's catalogues. This identical copy is noticed in an
account of Rydal Mount which appeared in the first volume of _Once a
Week_. Coleridge, of course, has made a number of notes in it, and in
one of these he describes the translation as 'an exquisite poem, spite
of its frequent and perverse quaintness and harshnesses, which are,
however, amply repaid by almost unexampled sweetness and beauty of
language.'

[Illustration: _William Hazlitt._]

The difference between a bibliophile and a bibliomaniac has been
described as between one who adorns his mind, and the other his
book-cases. Of the bibliomaniac as here characterized, we can suggest no
better type than Thomas Hill, the original of Poole's 'Paul Pry,' and of
Hull in Hook's novel, 'Gilbert Gurney.' Devoid as Hill was of
intellectual endowments, he managed to obtain and secure the friendship
of many eminent men--of Thomas Campbell, the poet, Matthews and Liston,
the comedians, Hook, Dubois, John and Leigh Hunt, James and Horace
Smith, John Taylor, editor of the _Sun_, Horace Twiss, Baron Field, Sir
George Rose, Barnes, subsequently editor of the _Times_, Cyrus Redding,
and many others. That he was kind-hearted and hospitable nearly everyone
has testified, and his literary parties at his Sydenham Tusculum were
quite important events, in spite of the ponderosity of his well-worn
stories. During the more acute stages of bibliomania in this country at
the latter part of the last century and the beginning of this, 'when the
Archaica, Heliconia, and Roxburghe Clubs were outbidding each other for
old black-letter works . . . when books, in short, which had only become
scarce because they were always worthless, were purchased upon the same
principle as that costly and valueless coin, a Queen Anne's farthing,'
Hill had been a constant collector of rare and other books which were in
demand. That he knew nothing of the insides of his books is very
certain; but he knew how much each copy would bring at an auction, and
how much it had brought at all previous sales. When the bibliomania had
reached its height, Messrs. Longman and Co. determined upon embarking in
such a lucrative branch of the trade; they applied to Hill for advice
and assistance, offering to begin by the purchase of his entire
collection, a proposition which he embraced with alacrity. He drew up a
_catalogue raisonné_ of his books, affixing his price for each volume.
The collection was despatched in three or four trunks to Paternoster
Row, and he received in payment the acceptances of the firm for as many
thousand pounds. From some cause or other, the purchasers soon repented
of their bargain, but the only terms which Horace Smith could obtain for
the Longmans was an extension in the term of payment. Hill declared that
the collection was worth double the price he had been paid for it. For
many years Hill assisted Perry, of the _Morning Chronicle_, in making
selections of rare books for his fine library at Tavistock House,
particularly in the department of facetiæ. After leaving Sydenham, Hill
took chambers in James Street, Adelphi, where he resided until his
death. The walls of his rooms were completely hidden by books, and his
couch was 'enclosed in a lofty circumvallation of volumes piled up from
the carpet.' He was never married, had no relations, and even his age
was a source of mystery to his friends. James Smith once said to him:
'The fact is, Hill, the register of your birth was destroyed in the
Great Fire of London, and you take advantage of the accident to conceal
your real age.' Hook went further by suggesting that he might originally
have been one of the little hills recorded as skipping in the Psalms.
Hill died in 1840, his age being placed at eighty-three years. Horace
Smith said 'he could not believe that Hill was dead, and he could not
insult a man he had known so long; Hill would reappear.'

[Illustration: _Thomas Hill, after Maclise._]

Samuel Rogers, the banker poet, was also a book-collector, but not in
the sense of one who aims at number. His house at 22, St. James's Place,
overlooking Green Park, was for over half a century--he had removed
here from the Temple about 1803--one of the most celebrated
meeting-places of literature and art in London. Byron, in his 'Diary,'
says, 'If you enter his house--his drawing-room, his library--you of
yourself say, This is not the dwelling of a common mind. There is not a
gem, a coin, a book, thrown aside on his chimney-piece, his sofa, his
table, that does not bespeak an almost fastidious elegance in the
possessor.' A writer in the _Athenæum_ of December 29, 1855, a few days
after the poet's death, describes the library as 'lined with bookcases
surmounted by Greek vases, each one remarkable for its exquisite beauty
of form. Upon the gilt lattice-work of the bookcases are lightly hung in
frames some of the finest original sketches by Raphael, Michelangelo,
and Andrea del Sarto; and finished paintings by Angelico da Fiesole, and
Fouquet of Tours.' Among the treasures of the library were the MSS. of
Gray, in their perfect calligraphy, and the famous agreement between
Milton and the publisher Simmonds, for the copyright of 'Paradise Lost.'

[Illustration: _Samuel Rogers's House in St. James's Place._]

[Illustration: Sam{l} Rogers]

Tom Moore the poet, and his friend and fellow-countryman, Thomas
Crofton Croker, were both book-collectors. The library of the former
was, in 1855, presented by his widow to the Royal Irish Academy, 'as a
memorial of her husband's taste and erudition.' Croker's books, which
were dispersed after his death, contain an exceedingly curious
book-plate, either indicating the possessor's residence, 'Rosamond's
Bower, Fulham,' or '3, Gloucester Road, Old Brompton,' the various
learned societies to which he belonged, with the additional information
that he was founder and president (1828-1848) of the Society of
Novimagus. Charles Dickens, Thackeray, W. Harrison Ainsworth (the
collection of the last was sold at Sotheby's in 1882, and realized £469
19s. 6d.), and Charles Lever were not book-collectors in the usual sense
of the word.

[Illustration: _Alexander Dyce, Book-collector._]

Among the more notable literary men who were also book-collectors of
this period, whose libraries are still preserved intact, are Alexander
Dyce and John Forster. Their collections, now at South Kensington, are
perhaps more particularly notable for the extraordinary number of books
which were once the property of famous men. Mr. Dyce, who was born in
Edinburgh, June, 1798, and died in 1869, bequeathed to the Museum 14,000
books, whilst the library of his friend and executor, John Forster
(1812-1876), contained upwards of 18,000 books, in addition to a number
of autographs, pictures, etc. The more interesting books of a 'personal'
nature in these two libraries are the following: Drayton's 'Battaile of
Agincourt,' 1627, a presentation copy to Sir Henry Willoughby, with
inscription in Drayton's autograph; a French cookery-book, with Gray's
autograph on the title; Ben Jonson's copy (with his autograph) of the
first collected edition of Marston's plays, 1633; a copy of Steele's
'Christian Hero,' with some verses in his autograph addressed to Dr.
Ellis, Head-master of the Charterhouse when Steele was at school.
Sheridan's plays include a presentation copy of 'The Rivals,' with an
inscription to David Garrick. The foregoing are all in the Dyce
Collection.

[Illustration: Ben: Jonson]

[Illustration:

     To
     My Lord Tutour D{r}. Ellis

     With Secret impulse thus do Streams return
     To that Capacious Ocean whence they're born:
     Oh Would but Fortune come w{th}. bounty fraught
     Proportion'd to y{e} mind w{ch}. thou hast taught!

     Till then let these unpolish'd leaves impart
     The Humble Offering of a Gratefull Heart

                                        Rich{d}. Steele]

[Illustration: David Garrick Esq{r}.

From The Author.]

That of John Forster includes a copy of Addison's 'Travels in Italy,'
with an autograph inscription by the author: 'To Dr. Jonathan Swift, the
most Agreeable Companion, the Truest Friend, and the Greatest Genius of
his age, this Book is presented by his most Humble Servant the Author.'
Among the many books on America, there is one with John Locke's
autograph. The copy of the fourth edition of Byron's 'English Bards and
Scotch Reviewers,' 1811, is that which was given by the author to Leigh
Hunt, and contains the poet's autograph and many corrections; a
presentation copy of Flatman's 'Poems and Songs,' 1682, to Izaak Walton,
who has inscribed his autograph in it; Gay's copy of Horace; some
proof-sheets of Johnson's 'Lives of the Poets;' a copy of Keats's
'Lamia,' 1820, with an autograph inscription and a sonnet 'On the
Grasshopper and the Cricket,' also in the poet's handwriting; Gray's
copy of Locke's 'Essay concerning Human Understanding,' a copy of the
'Dunciad,' 1729, with the inscription 'Jonath: Swift, 1729, amicissimi
autoris donum'; and Isaac Newton's copy of Wheare's 'Method and Order of
Reading Histories,' 1685.

[Illustration: John Locke]

[Illustration:

     Izaak Walton July 3{o}
     1682 given me, by
     the author.]

[Illustration: E Libris I. Newton.]

Apropos of books of distinguished ownership, the collecting of them
sometimes takes an eccentric turn; for example, the third Lord Holland
brought together all the various copies (now at Holland House) upon
which he could lay hands of Fox's 'History of the Reign of James II.,'
which belonged to distinguished people, and amongst these former owners
were Sir James Mackintosh, Sir Philip Francis, C. E. Jerningham, Rogers,
and General Fitzpatrick; and as many of the copies contained MS. notes,
the interest of the collection will be readily understood.

A brief review of the principal book-collectors whose libraries--formed
for the most part by men who lived in London--have been dispersed during
the past dozen years will not be without interest; those which have been
already referred to are, of course, omitted here. James Comerford,
F.S.A., by profession a notary public, who inherited from his father a
love of books, and also a considerable collection, had an exceedingly
fine library, which consisted for the most part of topographical works,
many of them on large paper with proof-plates. He was in his
seventy-sixth year when he died, and his books, which were sold at
Sotheby's in November, 1882 (thirteen days), realized a total of £8,327
13s. Frederic Ouvry, who died in June, 1881, was partner in the firm of
Farrer, Ouvry, and Co., of Lincoln's Inn; he was elected a Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries in 1848, and for twenty years was the society's
treasurer, and succeeded Earl Stanhope as president. He was a man of
considerable means, and formed one of the most interesting and most
choice of modern libraries. Many of his books fetched far higher sums
than he had paid for them; for example, Drummond of Hawthornden's 'Forth
Fasting,' 1617, cost him in 1858 £8 15s.--at his sale it fetched £60;
and Lodge's 'Rosalynd,' 1598, advanced from £5 10s. to £63. Mr. Ouvry
was an intimate friend of both Mr. Gladstone and Charles Dickens; a copy
of the former's 'Gleanings of Past Years' was a presentation one from
the author, and had the following inscription, 'Frederic Ouvry, Esq.,
from W. E. G., in memory of the work we have done together for fourteen
years in full harmony of thought and act.' There were 177 autograph
letters from Dickens, which sold for £150. The four folio Shakespeares
sold for £420, £46, £116, £28; a copy of the first edition of Spenser's
'Faërie Queene,' 1590-96, £33; a copy of Daniel's 'Delia,' 1592, with
corrections, supposed to be by the author, £88. The total of the six
days' sale was £6,169 2s.

A very remarkable library came under the hammer at Sotheby's on March
21-25, 1884, when the unique collection of the late Francis Bedford, the
eminent binder, was sold. The beauty of the bindings was naturally the
most striking feature of the library, but there were many books which
were rare or historically interesting apart from their coverings. For
example, there was the identical Prayer-Book that was found in the
pocket of Charles I. immediately after his execution; a copy of the
Breeches Bible printed in Scotland, 1579; one of the Pearl Bible, 1653;
a very fine copy of the 'Chronicon Nurembergense,' 1493. Bedford's own
_chef d'oeuvre_, a magnificent copy of Rogers' 'Italy' and 'Poems,' in
olive morocco, super extra, realized £116, whilst the total of the five
days' sale was £4,867 6s. 6d.

Among the more notable collections sold during 1885-7, that of the late
Leonard Laurie Hartley, at Puttick's, may be mentioned, containing as it
did some important books. Mr. Hartley has been described as a voracious
collector, and would buy almost anything the dealers offered him, and
almost at any price; hence he speedily became known as a good client,
and doubtless paid 'through the nose' for very many articles. The
extraordinarily extensive collection of books and manuscripts formed by
the late Sir Thomas Phillipps (who died in 1867), of Middle Hill,
Worcestershire, and Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham, commenced selling at
Sotheby's in 1886, and the supply is not yet by any means exhausted. Up
to March, 1895, seven portions had been dispersed, the total being
£15,766. Perhaps the most interesting item in this vast collection was
the original autograph manuscript of Sir Walter Scott's 'Life of Swift,'
which realized £230 in June, 1893.

During 1886 and 1887 the collections of two of the most genuine
book-hunters that ever lived came under the hammer. Professor Edward
Solly's extensive library of about 40,000 volumes, and comprising many
rare books on Defoe, Pope, Swift, Dryden, Samuel Butler, Johnson, Gray,
Cobbett, Paine, and also books of topography, biography, history,
travel, antiquities, bibliography, etc., only realized the total of
£1,544 13s. 6d. (November, 1886). The equally interesting library of the
late W. J. Thoms, founder of _Notes and Queries_, and Deputy-Librarian
of the House of Lords, realized two months after Mr. Solly's sale £1,094
9s. Mr. Thoms' library was considerably smaller than that of his friend
Mr. Solly, but they ran on very similar lines, Mr. Thoms' being
particularly strong in quaint and out-of-the-way books relating to Pope,
Junius, George IV., Queen Caroline, Princess Olive of Cumberland,
Reynard the Fox, and Longevity. The first part of the library of another
indefatigable book-hunter, Cornelius Walford, came under the hammer at
the same place (Sotheby's) in February, 1887. Some interesting books
were included in the four days' sale of the library of Sir William
Hardy, F.S.A., late Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records (December,
1886), but the books were chiefly first editions of modern authors.

[Illustration: _W. J. Thoms, Book-collector._

Founder of _Notes and Queries_.]

But the two great collections of books, equally celebrated in their way,
with, however, little in common, which give to the year 1887 a most
special importance, were those of the Earl of Crawford, and the first
portion of the late James T. Gibson Craig's (of Edinburgh), both of
which were dispersed in June, each occupying Messrs. Sotheby ten days in
the dispersal. The Crawford sale of 2,146 lots realized a total of
£19,073 9s. 6d., or an average of over £8 17s. per lot, whilst the
Gibson Craig sale of 2,927 lots produced only £6,803 8s., or an average
of a little over £2 6s. The former included, however, a perfect copy of
the Mazarin or Gutenberg Bible, which realized £2,650, and a copy of
Fust and Schoeffer's Bible, 1462, which sold for £1,025. Coverdale's
Bible realized £226, and Tyndale's Bible £255, whilst Tyndale's New
Testament, printed at Antwerp by Emperour, brought £230. The celebrated
block-book, the Apocalypse of St. John, generally regarded as the second
attempt in xylographic printing, realized £500. Sir Philip Sidney's
'Arcadia,' 1590, first edition, sold for £93. (It may be here mentioned
that the second portion of the Crawford library was sold in June, 1889,
when 1,105 lots realized £7,324 4s. 6d.--three Caxtons produced a total
of £588; Cicero, 'Old Age,' 1481, etc., £320; Higden's 'Policronicon,'
1482, £33; and 'Christine of Pisa,' 1489, £235.) The Gibson Craig
collection was essentially a modern one, and included a number of finely
illustrated books. One of the chief rarities was a copy of the first
edition of 'Robinson Crusoe,' which fetched £50. There were also a
number of autograph letters and MSS. of Sir Walter Scott, the most
important of which was the MS. of the 'Chronicles of the Canongate,'
£141. The second and third portions of the Gibson Craig library were
sold in March and November, 1888, the total of the three sales being
£15,509 4s. 6d. The library of the Earl of Aylesford was sold at
Christie's, March 6-16, 1888; and in June and November of the same year,
the extensive collection of the late R. S. Turner, of the Albany,
occupied Messrs. Sotheby twenty-eight days, 7,568 lots realizing a total
of over £16,000. A previous sale of 774 items of his books occurred in
France in 1878, and realized 319,100 francs. Turner's books included
many exceedingly choice volumes bound by the most eminent craftsmen,
such as Clovis Eve, Deseuil, Bozet, Derome, Padeloup, Capé,
Trautz-Bauzonnet, Roger Payne, Bedford, and Rivière. Turner was born in
1819, and died in June, 1887. Perhaps the great book sensation of 1888
occurred in the sale at Christie's when a portion of the library of the
late Lord Chancellor Hardwicke ('The Wimpole Library') was sold, and
when a dozen tracts relating to America, bound together in a quarto
volume, realized the unheard-of sum of £555. In the same sale also there
were three Caxtons: the 'Game and Play of Chesse,' 1475-76, first
edition, but not quite perfect, £260; and 'The Myrrour of the Worlde;'
and Tullius 'De Amicitia,' both imperfect, in one volume, £60.

We can only briefly allude here to some of the more important
collections which have been sold in London during the past six years. In
the majority of instances they were the possession of deceased
individuals, who for the most part lived out of London. In February,
1889, the Hopetoun House Library, the property of the Right Hon. the
Earl of Hopetoun, was sold at Sotheby's, 1,263 lots realizing £6,117
6s., the most important items in the sale being a copy of the
Gutenberg-Fust Latin Bible, 1450-55, £2,000, and the _editio princeps_
Virgil, 1469, £590. The library of Mr. John Mansfield Mackenzie, of
Edinburgh, sold at the same place in the following March (2,368 lots =
£7,072), was one of the most important collections dispersed in recent
years; it was especially rich in first editions of modern writers, in
_curious_ books, and in literature relating to the drama; it included an
exceedingly extensive series of Cruikshankiana, many of which realized
prices which have not since been maintained. The most important lots in
the sale of a selection from the library of the Duke of Buccleuch, at
Sotheby's, March 25-27, 1889, were five Caxtons, viz.: 'Dictes and
Sayengis of the Philosophirs,' 1477, first edition, £650; 'The
Chronicles of England,' first edition, 1480, £470; the same, second
edition, 1482, £45; Higden's 'Descripcion of Britayne,' 1480, £195; and
the 'Royal Book, or Book for a King' (? 1487), £365.

[Illustration: _Hollingbury Copse, the Residence of the late Mr.
Halliwell-Phillipps._]

Many interesting items occurred in the sale (July, 1889) of the library
of the late J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps (one of the most distinguished of
London book-hunters), which occurred a few months after the venerable
owner's death. The amount realized for 1,291 lots was £2,298 10s. 6d.;
and among them were several Shakespeare quartos, in all instances
slightly imperfect. By far the most important feature of the
Shakespearian rarities, drawings and engravings, preserved at
Hollingbury Copse, near Brighton--'that quaint wigwam on the Sussex
Downs which had the honour of sheltering more record and artistic
evidences connected with the personal history of the great dramatist
than are to be found in any other of the world's libraries'--still
remains intact, according to the late owner's direction. It was offered
to the Corporation of Birmingham for £7,000, but without avail. The
collection comprises early engraved portraits of Shakespeare, authentic
personal relics, documentary evidences respecting his estates and
individuals connected with his biography, and artistic illustrations of
localities connected with his personal history. The most important of
the several hundred items is perhaps the unique early proof of the
famous Droeshout portrait, for which Halliwell-Phillipps gave £100, and
for which an American collector offered him £1,000. A calendar of this
extraordinary assembly was very carefully edited by Mr. E. E. Baker,
F.S.A., in 1891, and the collection is still intact. Writing in June,
1887, Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps himself tells us that for nearly half a
century he had been an ardent Shakespearian collector, 'being most
likely the only survivor of the little band who attended the sale of the
library of George Chalmers somewhere about the year 1840. But for a long
time, attempting too much in several directions with insufficient
means, and harassed, moreover, by a succession of lawsuits, including
two in the Court of Torture--I mean Chancery--I was unable to retain my
accumulations; and thus it came to pass that bookcase full after
bookcase full were disposed of, some by private contract, many under the
vibrations of the auctioneer's hammer. This state of affairs continued
till February, 1872, but since that period, by a strict limitation of my
competitive resources to one subject--the Life of Shakespeare--I have
managed to jog along without parting with a single article of any
description.'

A much more important collection of Shakespeariana than that which
appeared in the Halliwell-Phillipps sale came under the hammer at the
same place a few days afterwards, when the late Frederick Perkins's
library was dispersed (2,086 lots realized £8,222 7s.). The sale, in
fact, was the most important in this respect since that of George Daniel
in 1864, to which, however, the Perkins Collection was considerably
inferior. Mr. Perkins had spent many years of search and a large sum of
money in collecting early editions of Shakespeare, but during the past
thirty years not only has their value gone up in an appalling degree,
but they are for the most part positively unprocurable. Under these
depressing conditions, Mr. Perkins managed nevertheless to obtain
eighteen first or very early quarto editions of Shakespeare's plays; and
poor as is this show when compared with that of George Daniel, it is
doubtful whether a sale so extensive from the particular point of view
under consideration as that of Mr. Perkins can be expected until well
into the next century. The highest price was paid for 'The Second Part
of Henrie the Fourth,' 1600, £225; 'Romeo and Juliet,' 1599, fetched
£164; the 'Merchant of Venice,' 1600 (printed by J. Roberts), £121;
'Henry V.,' 1608, third edition, £99. The First Folio fetched £415.

The dispersals of book-collections in 1890 included a few of
considerable note. The exceedingly extensive one, for example, of the
late Sir Edward Sullivan, Bart., Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was highly
interesting as illustrating a phase of book-collecting which is now all
but obsolete. It was rich in the classics, which three-quarters of a
century ago would have created the greatest excitement. It occupied
twenty-one days (May-June), when 6,919 lots realized a total of £10,982
3s.--a highly satisfactory result, when the general depreciation in the
market value of the classics is considered. The extensive library of Mr.
Thomas Gaisford (2,218 lots, £9,182 15s. 6d.), which was sold in April,
1890, included not only some fine editions of the classics, but a
remarkable series of Blake's works, first editions of Keats, Byron,
Shelley, Swinburne, the four folio editions of Shakespeare, and a few
quartos, notably the 'Merry Wives of Windsor,' 1602, £385; 'Love's
Labour Lost,' 1598, £140; and 'Much Adoe about Nothing,' 1600, £130, all
first editions. Some very interesting and rare Shakespeare items
occurred also in the sale of the library of the late Frederick William
Cosens, 1890, _e.g._, 'Merchant of Venice,' 1600, £270; and the 'Poems,'
1640, £61. The dramatic library of the late Frank Marshall (Sotheby's,
June, 1890, £2,187 14s. 6d.), and the angling books of the late Francis
Francis (Puttick's, July, 1890), were interesting collections in the way
of special books.

The most noteworthy collections dispersed in 1891 included the Walton
Hall library of the late Edward Hailstone, who was D.L. of the West
Riding, Yorkshire (sold in February and April, 5,622 lots, £8,991 5s.
6d.), among which were many books of an exceedingly curious character;
and the 'Lakelands' library of the late W. H. Crawford, of Lakelands,
co. Cork (3,428 lots, £21,255 19s. 6d.), remarkable on account of its
copy of the Valdarfer Boccaccio, 1471, £230; a copy (? unique) of
Caviceo, 'Dialogue treselegant intitule le Peregrin,' 1527, on vellum,
with the arms of France, £355; the Landino edition of Dante, 1481, with
the engravings by Bacio Baldini from the designs by Botticelli, £360;
Shakespeare's 'Lucrece,' 1594, £250, and 'Merchant of Venice,' 1600,
£111; and the 'Legenda Aurea,' printed by Caxton, 1483, £465. The
topographical and general library of the late Lord Brabourne was sold in
May, 1891, also at Sotheby's; whilst the remainder of this library was
sold at Puttick's in June, 1893. The collections scattered in 1892
included few of note, but we may mention those of the late Joshua H.
Hutchinson, G. B. Anderson, and R. F. Cooke (a partner in the firm of
John Murray, the eminent publisher) as including many first editions of
modern authors; whilst those of John Wingfield Larking and Edwin Henry
Lawrence, F.S.A., included a number of rare books, as may be gathered
from the fact that the library of the former comprised 946 lots, which
realized £3,925 13s., and that of the latter, 860 lots, £7,409 3s. The
most interesting collection sold in 1893 was the selected portions from
the books, MSS., and letters collected by William Hazlitt, his son, and
his grandson; of the first importance in another direction was the sale
of the Bateman heirlooms (books and MSS.).

The late Rev. W. E. Buckley, M.A., formerly Fellow and Tutor of
Brasenose College, Oxford, and late Rector of Middleton-Cheney, Banbury,
and vice-president of the Roxburghe Club, was a veritable Heber in a
small way. Besides the enormous quantity of books sold in two portions
(twenty-two days in all) in February, 1893, and April, 1894, several
vanloads were disposed of locally, as not being worth the cost of
carriage to London. His library must have comprised nearly 100,000
volumes, of which only a small proportion had any commercial importance.
He managed, however, in his long career, to pick up a few bargains,
notably the Columbus 'Letter' ('Epistola Christofori Colom.,' four
leaves, 1493, with which was bound up Vespucci, 'Mundus novus Albericus
Vesputius,' etc., 1503, also four leaves), which cost him less than £5,
and which realized £315; he also possessed a first edition of
Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield,' 1766, £39 10s.; Keats's 'Poems,' first
edition, 1817, in the original boards, £23 10s.; Fielding's 'Tom Jones,'
1749, first edition, uncut, in the original boards, £69. The two
portions of the Buckley library sold at Sotheby's realized £9,420 9s.
6d. The smallest, as well as the choicest, library sold in 1894 (June
11) comprised the most select books from the collection of Mr. Birket
Foster, the distinguished artist. The first, second, third, and fourth
folio Shakespeares sold for £255, £56, £130, and £25 respectively; the
quarto editions of the great dramatist included 'A Midsummer Night's
Dream,' 1600, large copy, £122; 'Merchant of Venice,' 1600, £146; 'King
Lear,' 1608, £100. Mr. Foster also possessed John Milton's copy of
'Lycophronis Alexandra,' which realized £90; an incomplete copy of
Caxton's 'Myrrour of the World,' 1491, £77. The valuable and interesting
dramatic and miscellaneous library of the late Frederick Burgess, of the
Moore and Burgess minstrels, was sold at Sotheby's, in May-June, 1894,
and included many choice editions of modern authors.

The late Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte was a giant among
book-collectors, but his books were almost exclusively philological. Mr.
Victor Collins, who has compiled an 'Attempt' at a catalogue, in which
there are no less than 13,699 entries, states that 'as a young man the
Prince was fond of chemistry, and on one occasion he was desirous of
reading a chemical work that happened to exist only in Swedish. He
learned Swedish for the purpose, and this gave him a taste for
languages, very many of which he studied. His object in forming the
library was to discover, rather perhaps to show, the relationship of all
languages to each other. Nor was it only distinct languages he included
in his plan, but their dialects, their corruptions, even slang, thieves'
slang--slang of all kinds. In carrying out his idea the Prince had of
course the advantages of exceptional abilities, and, until the fall of
the Empire, of unlimited money. Some of the bindings are very beautiful.
As to the printing, the Prince for long had a fully-fitted
printing-office on the basement floor of his house in Norfolk Terrace,
Bayswater. The Prince being a Senator of France, a cousin of Louis
Napoleon, and a well-known philologist, people brought him all sorts of
interesting books. Therefore it is not surprising to find that the
library includes rare works not present, for instance, in the British
Museum. There are three early German Bibles which Mr. Gladstone,
visiting the Prince once, thought should be presented to the British
Museum. To the best of Mr. Gladstone's knowledge, one of the three did
not exist anywhere else, and either of the three would be worth about
£500. They are remarkable specimens of early German printing, and are
profusely illustrated.' Mr. Collins calculates that there are at least
25,000 volumes in the collection, and that fully thirty alphabets are
spread through them. This extraordinary collection, like the
Shakespearian one formed by Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, is still awaiting a
purchaser (see the _Times_, July 25, 1895).

The collection, also a special one, of a recently-deceased
book-collector may be mentioned here, and for the following particulars
we are indebted to Mr. Elliot Stock: 'Edmund Waterton, the son of
Charles Waterton, the naturalist, lived at first at Walton Hall, his
father's residence. He sold this, and bought a house at Deeping,
Waterton, where his ancestors formerly lived. He had a large old
library, a great part of which he inherited from his father. His great
pleasure was in his "Imitatio Christi" collection. He succeeded in
gathering together some 1,500 different editions, printed and MS. He had
given commissions to booksellers all over Europe to send him any edition
they might meet with, and one of the pleasures of his life was to see
the foreign packets come by post. I sent him a seventeenth-century
edition which I came across accidentally for his acceptance on "spec."
It turned out it was one he had been looking for for a long time, and
his letter describing his glee when it was brought up to his bedroom in
the morning with his breakfast was very comic. He kept an oblong volume
like a washing-book, with all the editions he knew of, some thousands in
all, and his delight in ticking one more off the lengthy _desiderata_
was like that of a schoolboy marking off the "days to the holidays."
Edmund Waterton had a number of rare books besides those in his
"Imitation" collection; notably a very tall First Folio Shakespeare,
with contemporary comments made by some ancestor, who had also made good
some of the missing pages in MS. He was a lineal descendant of Sir
Thomas More, on his mother's side, and possessed Sir T. More's clock,
which still went when I stayed with him. It was apparently the same
clock that hangs on the wall at the back of Holbein's celebrated
picture of Sir Thomas More and his family. Waterton had one of the
longest and clearest pedigrees in the country, tracing back to Saxon
times without break; his family were Catholics, and seem to have lost
most of their property in the troublous times of the Reformation. Anyone
who was interested in the "Imitation," whether as a collector or not,
always met with kindness, and almost affection, from him. The first time
I met him--which arose from my making the facsimile of the Brussels
MS.--he showed his confidence and goodwill by lending me, for several
days, his oblong record of editions to look over.'

Mr. Waterton's collection of the 'Imitation' came under the hammer at
Sotheby's in January, 1895, in two lots. The first comprised six
manuscripts and 762 printed editions, ancient and modern, in various
languages, of this celebrated devotional work, arranged in languages in
chronological order. It realized £101. The second lot comprised a
collection of 437 printed editions, a few of which were not included in
the former, and sold for the equally absurd amount of £43. The British
Museum had the first pick of this collection, and the authorities were
enabled to fill up a large number of gaps in their already extensive
series of editions. The six MSS. and over 250 printed editions passed
into the possession of Dr. Copinger, of Manchester, through Messrs.
Sotheran, of the Strand, who, indeed, purchased the two 'lots' when
offered at Sotheby's.

[Illustration]


FOOTNOTES:

[47:A] 'In a small gloomy house within the gates of Elliot's
Brewery, between Brewer Street, Pimlico, and York Street,
Westminster.'--Wheatley's edition of Cunningham's 'London.'

[55:A] The library of Beauclerk (who is better remembered as an intimate
friend of Dr. Johnson than as a book-collector) comprised 30,000
volumes, was sold by Paterson in 1781, and occupied fifty days. It was a
good collection of classics, poetry, the drama, books of prints,
voyages, travels, and history.

[61:A] Among the absentees were his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, who
was prevented attending the anniversary by indisposition, the Marquis of
Blandford, and Sir M. M. Sykes, Bart.

[62:A] The name really employed was Bannatyne.

[64:A] Thorpe suspected this, and secured the volume, thinking to do his
friends of the Roxburghe Club a good turn. Writing to Dibdin, Thorpe
said: 'I bought it for £40 against the editor of the _Athenæum_, who, if
he got it, would have shown the club up finely larded.' But Dibdin did
not jump at paying so heavy a price for silence, and Thorpe wisely
consoled himself with Mr. Dilke's £50.

[68:A] Heathcote dispersed two portions of his books at Sotheby's, first
in April, 1802, and secondly in May, 1808. Some of the books which Dent
obtained for him, with additions, were sold at the same place in April,
1808.

[72:A] This famous old place possesses a literary history which would
fill a fairly long chapter. Among those who have lived here we may
mention Ephraim Chambers, whose 'Cyclopædia' is the parent of a numerous
offspring; John Newbery lived here for some time, and it was during his
tenancy that Goldsmith found a refuge here from his creditors, and wrote
'The Deserted Village' and 'The Vicar of Wakefield'; William Woodfall
had lodgings in this historic tower; and Washington Irving, early in the
present century, threw around it a halo of romance and interest which it
had not previously possessed.

[77:A] Hazlitt was a good deal of a book-borrower. In his 'Conversations
with Northcote' he speaks of having been obliged to pay five shillings
for the loan of 'Woodstock' at a regular bookseller's shop, as he could
not procure it at the circulating libraries.




[Illustration]

BOOK-AUCTIONS AND SALES.


I.

IT is perhaps to be regretted that the late Adam Smith did not make an
inquiry into the subject of Books and their Prices. The result, if not
as exhaustive as the 'Wealth of Nations,' would have been quite as
important a contribution to the science of social economy. In a general
way, books are subject, like other merchandise, to the laws of supply
and demand. But, as with other luxuries, the demand fluctuates according
to fashion rather than from any real, tangible want. The want, for
example, of the edition of Chaucer printed by Caxton, or of the
Boccaccio by Valdarfer, is an arbitrary rather than a literary one, for
the text of neither is without faults, or at all definitive. To take
quite another class of books as an illustration: the demand for first
editions of Dickens, Thackeray, Ruskin, and others, is perhaps greater
than the supply; but we do not read these first editions any more than
the Caxton Chaucer or the Valdarfer Boccaccio; we can get all the good
we want out of the fiftieth edition. We do not, however, feel called
upon to anticipate the labours and inquiries of the future Adam Smith;
it must suffice us to indicate some of the more interesting prices and
fashions in book-fancies which have prevailed during the last two
centuries or so in London.

The sale of books by auction dates, in this country at all events, from
the year 1676, when William Cooper, a bookseller of considerable
learning, who lived at the sign of the Pelican, in Little Britain,
introduced a custom which had for many years been practised on the
Continent. The full title of this interesting catalogue is in Latin--a
language long employed by subsequent book-auctioneers--and runs as
follows:

     CATALOGUS | VARIORUM ET INSIGNIUM | LIBRORUM | INSTRUCTISSIMÆ
     BIBLIOTHECA | CLARISSIMI DOCTISSIMIQ VIRI--LAZARI SEAMAN, S.
     T. D. | QUORUM AUCTIO HABEBITUR LONDINI | IN ÆDIBUS DEFUNCTI
     IN AREA ET VICULO | WARWICENSI. OCTOBRIS ULTIMO | CURA
     GULIELMI COOPER BIBLIOPOLÆ | LONDINI.

                                    { GRUIS IN CÆMETARIO }
       { ED. BREWSTER  }            { PAULINO            }
  APUD {      &        } AD INSIGNE { PELICANI IN        } 1676.
       { GUIL. COOPER. }            { VICO VULGARITER    }
                                    { DICTO              }
                                    { LITTLE BRITAIN.    }

As will be seen from the foregoing, Cooper had no regular auction-rooms,
for in this instance Dr. Seaman's books were sold at his own house in
Warwick Court. Mr. John Lawler, in _Booklore_, December, 1885, points
out an error first made by Gough (in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, and
extensively copied since), who states that the sale occurred at Cooper's
house in Warwick Lane. In his preface 'To the Reader,' Cooper makes an
interesting announcement, by way of apology. 'It hath not been,' he
says, 'usual here in England to make sale of books by way of Auction, or
who will give most for them; but it having been practised in other
Countreys to the advantage of Buyers and Sellers, it was therefore
conceived (for the encouragement of learning) to publish the sales of
these books in this manner of way; and it is hoped that this will not be
Unacceptable to Schollars; and therefore we thought it convenient to
give an advertisement concerning the manner of Proceeding therein.' The
second sale, comprising the library of Mr. Thomas Kidner, was held by
Cooper three months after, _i.e._, February 6, 1676-77. On February 18,
1677-78, the third sale by auction was held, and this, as Mr. Lawler has
pointed out, is the first 'hammer'[100:A] auction, and was held at a
coffee-house--'in vico vulgo dicto, Bread St. in Ædibus Ferdinandi
stable coffipolæ ad insigne capitis Turcæ,' the auctioneer in this case
being Zacharius Bourne, whilst the library was that of the Rev. W.
Greenhill, author of a 'Commentary on Ezekiel,' and Rector of Stepney,
Middlesex. The fourth sale was that of Dr. Thomas Manton's library, in
March, 1678. From 1676 to 1682, no less than thirty sales were held, and
these included, in addition to the four already mentioned, the libraries
of Brooke, Lord Warwick, Sir Kenelm Digby (see p. 120), Dr. S. Charnock,
Dr. Thomas Watson, John Dunton, the crack-brained bookseller, Dr.
Castell, the author of the 'Heptaglotton,' Dr. Thomas Gataker, and
others. The business of selling by auction was so successful that
several other auctioneers adopted it, including such well-known
booksellers as Richard Chiswell and Moses Pitt. At a very early period a
suspicion got about that the books were 'run up' by those who had a
special interest in them, and accordingly the vendors of Dr. Benjamin
Worsley's sale, in May, 1678, emphatically denied this imputation, which
they described as 'a groundless and malicious suggestion of some of our
own trade envious of our undertaking.' In addition to this statement,
they refused to accept any 'commissions' to buy at this sale.

[Illustration: _John Dunton, Book-auctioneer in 1698._]

The dispersal of books by auction developed in many ways. It soon
became, for example, one means of getting rid of the bookseller's heavy
stock, of effecting what is now termed a 'rig.' Its popularity was
extended to the provinces, for from 1684 and onwards Edward
Millington[101:A] visited the provinces, selecting fair times for
preference, taking with him large quantities of books, which he sold at
auction, and this doubtless was another method of distributing works
which were more or less still-born. John Dunton (who, the Pretender
said, was the first man he would hang when he became King) took a cargo
of books to Ireland in 1698, and most of these he sold by auction in
Dublin. This visit was not welcomed by the Irish booksellers, and one of
its numerous results was 'The Dublin Scuffle,' which is still worth
reading. Dunton's receipts amounted to £1,500. It was said that Dunton
had 'done more service to learning by his three auctions than any single
man that had come into Ireland for the previous three hundred years.'

[Illustration: _Samuel Baker, the Founder of Sotheby's._]

It may be pointed out that the early auction catalogues are of the
'thinnest' possible nature. The books were usually arranged according to
subjects, but each lot, irrespective of its importance, was confined to
a single line. The sales were at first usually held from eight o'clock
in the morning until twelve, and again from two o'clock till six, a
day's sale therefore occupying eight hours. Mr. Lawler calculates that
the average number of lots sold would be about sixty-six. The early hour
at which the sales began was soon dropped, and eventually the time of
starting became noon, and from that to one or even two o'clock. It is
quite certain that, up to ten shillings, penny and twopenny bids were
accepted. The sales were chiefly held at the more noteworthy
coffee-houses. Dr. King, in his translation (?) of Sorbière's 'Journey
to London,' 1698, says: 'I was at an auction of books at Tom's
Coffee-house, near Ludgate, where were about fifty people. Books were
sold with a great deal of trifling and delay, as with us, but very
cheap. Those excellent authors, Mounsieur Maimbourg, Mounsieur
Varillas, Monsieur le Grand, tho' they were all guilt on the back and
would have made a very considerable figure in a gentleman's study, yet,
after much tediousness, were sold for such trifling sums that I am
asham'd to name 'em.'

[Illustration: _Samuel Leigh Sotheby._]

[Illustration: _Mr. E. G. Hodge, of Sotheby's._]

It is curious to note the evolution of the book-auctioneer from the
bookseller. Besides the names already quoted, John Whiston, Thomas
Wilcox, Thomas and Edward Ballard, Sam Bathoe, Sam Paterson, Sam Baker,
and George Leigh, were all booksellers as well as book-auctioneers. Of
these the firm established by Samuel Baker in 1744 continues to flourish
in Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge. The earlier auctioneers with whom books
were a special feature, but who did not sell books except under the
hammer, include Cock (under the Great Piazza, Covent Garden), Langford
(who succeeded to Cock's business), Gerard, James Christie, Greenwood,
Compton, and Ansell.

[Illustration: _A Field-day at Sotheby's._

(Reduced, by kind permission, from a full-page engraving in the
_Graphic_.)]

[Illustration: _Key to the Characters in the 'Field-day at Sotheby's.'_

      1. Mr. G. S. Snowden
      2. Mr. E. Daniell
      3. Mr. Railton
      4. Mr. J. Rimell
      5. Mr. E. G. Hodge
      6. Mr. J. Toovey
      7. Mr. B. Quaritch
      8. Mr. G. J. Ellis
      9. Mr. J. Roche
     10. Mr. Reeves
     11. Lord Brabourne
     12. Mr. W. Ward
     13. Mr. Leighton
     14. Mr. E. W. Stibbs
     15. Mr. H. Sotheran
     16. Mr. Westell
     17. Mr. Walford
     18. Henry
     19. Mr. Dobell
     20. Mr. Robson
     21. Mr. Dykes Campbell
     22. Palmer's boy
     23. Dr. Neligan
     24. Mr. C. Hindley
     25. Earl of Warwick
     26. Mr. Molini
     27. Mr. H. Stevens
     28. Mr. F. Locker-Lampson
     29. Mr. E. Walford]

The firm of Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge is, by nearly half a century,
the _doyen_ of London auctioneers. One hundred and fifty years is a long
life for one firm, but Sotheby's can claim an unbroken record of that
length of time. The founder of the house was Samuel Baker, who started
as a bookseller and book-auctioneer in York Street, Covent Garden, in
1744. At the latter part of his career, Baker, who retired in 1777 and
died in the following year, took into partnership George Leigh, and, at
a later date, his nephew, John Sotheby, whose son Samuel also joined the
firm. Writing in 1812, Richard Gough observes in reference to Leigh:
'This genuine disciple of the _elder Sam_ [Baker] is still at the head
of his profession, assisted by a _younger Sam_ [Sotheby]; and of the
Auctioneers of Books may not improperly be styled _facile princeps_. His
pleasant disposition, his skill, and his integrity are as well known as
his famous _snuff-box_, described by Mr. Dibdin as having a not less
imposing air than the remarkable periwig of Sir Fopling of old, which,
according to the piquant note of Dr. Warburton, usually made its
entrance upon the stage in a sedan chair, brought in by two chairmen,
with infinite satisfaction to the audience. When a high price book is
balancing between £15 and £20, it is a fearful sign of its reaching an
additional sum if Mr. Leigh should lay down his hammer and delve into
this said crumple-horn-shaped snuff-box.' The style of the firm was for
many years Leigh, Sotheby and Son. In 1803-4 a removal to 145, Strand,
opposite Catherine Street, was made. John Sotheby died in 1807, and the
name of Leigh disappeared from the catalogues in 1816. Samuel Sotheby
removed to the present premises, No. 3 (now 13), Wellington Street,
Strand, in 1818, not more than a few yards from either of the two former
localities. The last of the race, Samuel Leigh Sotheby, joined his
father in partnership in 1830, and is well and widely known as a
scholar and author of considerable note. In 1843 John Wilkinson became a
partner, and S. L. Sotheby died in 1861. The next alteration in the
style of the firm was effected in 1864, when the present head and sole
member, Mr. Edward Grose Hodge, was admitted into partnership. The first
sale was the collection of books belonging to Thomas Pellet, M.D.
Curiously enough, Baker's name does not occur anywhere in connection
with this sale on the catalogue thereof. The auction took place in the
Great Room over Exeter 'Change, and lasted fifteen days, or rather
nights, for the sale began at five o'clock in the evening on Monday,
January 7, 1744. The octavos, quartos, and folios, of which a selection
appeared in each evening's sale, were numbered separately, a process
which must have been very confusing, and one which was soon dropped. The
first day's sale of 123 lots realized £47 7s. 1d., whilst the fifteen
nights produced a total of £859 11s. 1d. One of the highest prices was
paid for Mrs. Blackwell's 'Herbal,' 1740, 'finely coloured and best
paper, in blue Turkey,' £14. The catalogue of this sale contained the
interesting announcement: 'That the publick may be assured this is the
genuine collection of Dr. Pellet, without addition or diminution, the
original catalogue may be seen by any gentleman at the place of sale.'
In 1754-55 Dr. Mead's books occupied fifty days, and produced £5,518
10s. 11d.; and in 1756 forty days devoted to the library of Martin
Folkes yielded no more than £3,091 odd. In February, 1755, Baker sold
Fielding's library of 653 lots (£364 7s. 1d.). Gradually more important
properties came to hand--the effects of Samuel Tyssen, 1802,
thirty-eight days, £9,102 16s. 7d.; Prince Talleyrand (_Bibliotheca
Splendidissima_), 1816, eighteen days, only £8,399; James Bindley, 1819,
twenty-eight days, £7,692 6s. 6d.; the Dimsdales, 1824, seventeen days,
£7,802 19s. Of course, very interesting days have been experienced where
the financial result was not very striking, as when, in 1799, the firm
disposed of the library of the Right Hon. Joseph Addison, 'Author and
Secretary of State,' for £533 4s. 4d.; and in 1833 of that of 'the
Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte' (_sic_), removed from St. Helena, for £450
9s. (his tortoiseshell walking-stick bringing £38 17s.); and, once more,
when the drawings of T. Rowlandson, the caricaturist, were sold in 1818
for £700. The libraries of the Marquis of Lansdowne, 1806; the Duke of
Queensberry, 1805; Marquis of Townsend, 1812; Count McCarthy, 1789;
H.R.H. the Duke of York, 1827; James Boswell, 1825; G. B. Inglis, 1826;
Edmond Malone, 1818; Joseph Ritson, 1803; John Wilkes, 1802; and a large
number of others, came under the hammer at Sotheby's from 1744 to 1828.
But the portions--the first, second, third, ninth, and tenth--of the
stupendous Heber Library, dispersed here in 1834, owing to the
prevailing depression, and what Dibdin called the _bibliophobia_, nearly
ruined the auctioneers. They rallied from the blow, however, and have
never suffered any relapse to bad times, whatever account they may be
pleased to give of the very piping ones which they have known pretty
well ever since 1845, when Mr. Benjamin Heywood Bright's important
library was entrusted to their care. The secret of this steady and
sustained progress is to be found in the general confidence secured by
strict commercial integrity. The house receives business, but never
solicits it. During the last half century nearly every important library
has been sold at Sotheby's, including the Hamilton Palace and Beckford,
the Thorold, the Osterley Park, the Seillière, and the Crawford
libraries.

[Illustration: _R. H. Evans, Book-auctioneer, 1812._]

But from 1812 to 1845 the most important libraries were almost
invariably sold by R. H. Evans, who began with the famous Roxburghe
Collection--this sale, it may be mentioned, was held at the Duke's
house, now occupied by the Windham Club, 13, St. James's Square--in
1812, and finished with the sixth part of the library of the Duke of
Sussex in 1845. We can only refer to a few of the more important of
Evans's sales, in addition to the two foregoing: In 1813 he sold the
fine collection of early-printed books collected by Stanesby Alchorne,
Master of the Mint, Earl Spencer having previously bought Alchorne's
Caxtons; in 1815 the Duke of Grafton's library; in 1818-19 two parts of
James Bindley's collection; in 1819-20 the White Knights Library of the
Marquis of Blandford; in 1832-33 John Broadley's collection of books,
which included the celebrated 'Bedford Missal,' bought by Sir John Tobin
for £1,100, and now in the British Museum; in 1833 Edmund Burke's books;
Lord Byron's in 1827; T. F. Dibdin's, 1817; the Earl of Guilford's, in
three parts, 1830-35; the fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and eleventh
parts of the Heber Collection, 1834-36; the books of Thomas Hill ('Paul
Pry'), 1841; Daniel and Samuel Lysons, 1820, 1828, 1834; G. and W.
Nicol, booksellers, 1825; Colonel Stanley, 1813; Sir M. M. Sykes, three
parts, 1824; and J. Towneley, 1814-45, 1828. A complete list of Evans's
sales is contributed by Mr. Norgate to _The Library_, iii. 324-330. Of
the auctioneer himself a few details will not be out of place. Robert
Harding Evans was the son of Thomas Evans, a bookseller of the Strand,
and served his apprenticeship with Tom Payne at the News Gate. Leaving
here, he succeeded to the business of James Edwards, Pall Mall, and was
induced by George Nicol to undertake the sale by auction of the Duke of
Roxburghe's library. The experiment was such a success that he became
almost exclusively known as an auctioneer, and his business as a
bookseller speedily declined. He was an admirable auctioneer, having an
excellent memory and a vast fund of information; but he neglected the
most important of all matters in commercial life, his ledgers. He had to
give up selling books by auction, but restarted as a bookseller in Bond
Street, with his two sons as partners; but his day was over, and here
failure again followed him. He died in Edwards Street, Hampstead Road,
April 25, 1857, aged eighty.

A few other firms of book-auctioneers, although, with one exception,
they have ceased to exist, call for mention. Sam Paterson, than whom no
more popular an auctioneer ever wielded a hammer, was, as we have
already seen, first a bookseller. Sam--we employ the little familiarity
by which he was universally known--was born in 1728 in the parish of St.
Paul, Covent Garden, and lived on till 1802, his death being the result
of an accident. He was not only a bookseller, but an author and a
traveller, and it was during a tour in Holland and Flanders that he
brought home a large collection of books, which he sold at auction. In
1757, Sam prevented the valuable collection of MSS. once belonging to
Sir Julius Cæsar from being destroyed; they had actually been sold to a
cheesemonger as waste-paper for £10. He rescued the whole collection,
and drew up a masterly catalogue of it, and when sold by auction the
result was £356. For some years he was librarian to the Earl of
Shelburne, afterwards first Marquis of Lansdowne. Sam's great talents at
'cataloguizing' were unrivalled: he compiled those of James West, P.R.S.
(whose library he sold at Langford's), 1773, the sale lasting
twenty-four days, and including a fine series of books printed by
Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and on Old English literature and history,
voyages and travels (see p. 179); the Rev. Thomas Crofts, forty-three
days, in 1783; Topham Beauclerk, April 8, 1781, and following forty-nine
days (the collection was dispersed by Sam himself 'opposite Beaufort
Buildings, Strand'); of the Fagel Collection, now in Trinity College,
Dublin, 1802, and others. Nichols states that the catalogues of the
libraries of Maffei Pinelli, sold in London in fifty-four days, 1789-90;
of Samuel Tyssen, 1801, thirteen days; and of John Strange, fifty-six
days, 1801, were compiled by the versatile Sam. The Pinelli catalogue
most certainly was not his work, for although he commenced it, he threw
it up at a very early stage. The Tyssen and Strange libraries were sold
at Sotheby's, for whom Sam 'catalogued' for some time. The book-hunter
in London will occasionally meet with a copy of the 'Bibliotheca
Universalis Selecta' on the stalls for a few pence, and he is strongly
recommended to buy this very admirable volume. It is a model catalogue
in its way; the contents of this sale (which took place at Sam's Great
Room in King Street, Covent Garden, on Monday, May 8, 1786, and the
thirty-five following days) are carefully classified, whilst the index
extends to nearly seventy pages. The volume is well interspersed with
Sam's annotations, and the published price of it is 5s. 6d. The second
condition of sale is extremely interesting; it says, 'No bidder shall
advance less than THREEPENCE under ten shillings; above ten shillings,
SIXPENCE; above one pound, ONE SHILLING.'

The chief rival of Leigh and Paterson was Thomas King, who from 1780 to
1796 had a shop in Lower Moorfields, but who towards the end of 1796
moved to King Street, Covent Garden, and set up as an auctioneer. At
first it was King and Son, but the son, early in the present century,
started for himself in Tavistock Street, when the elder King's
son-in-law, Lochée, became a partner. The firm existed into the second
decade of the present century, and sold many important libraries,
notably Isaac Reed's, in 1807, which lasted thirty-nine days, and
included a very extraordinary collection of works relating to the
English drama and poetry; Dr. Richard Farmer's, in 1798, lasting
thirty-six days; John Maddison's, of the Foreign Department in the Post
Office, 1802, twenty-two days; George Steevens's, May 13, 1800, eleven
days; and John Horne Tooke's, May 26, 1813, four days. It is scarcely
necessary to point out that either of the foregoing remarkable libraries
would give 'tone' to the annals of any book-auction house. The
collection of the Rev. John Brand (see p. 179), of the Society of
Antiquaries, was sold by Stewart, the founder of Puttick's, of
Piccadilly, in 1807-8, when 4,064 lots realized a total of £6,151 15s.;
he also sold the libraries of Lord Thurlow, of W. Bryant, etc. Other
auctioneers who occasionally sold books during the earlier part of the
present century were Jeffrey, of Pall Mall, who in 1810 sold Dr.
Benjamin Heath's library in thirty-two days, the 4,786 lots realizing
£8,899; Cochrane, of Catherine Street, who in 1816 (twelve days)
dispersed an exceedingly interesting library originally formed between
1610 and 1650 by Sir Robert Gordon, of Gordonstoun, one of the Gentlemen
of the Bedchamber of James I. and Charles I.; Compton, of Conduit
Street, who in 1783-84 (fifteen days) sold Joseph Gulston's library;
Robins, of Warwick Street; and T. and J. Egerton, of Scotland Yard.

[Illustration: _John Walker, Book-auctioneer, 1776._]

Mention may be here made of one who for many years occupied an important
position in the fraternity. John Walker, brother-in-law of the elder
George Robinson, was the book-auctioneer to the trade, and frequently
knocked down from £10,000 to £40,000 worth of books in the course of an
afternoon. In 1776 Walker was in partnership with J. Fielding, and in
early life combined with the book-trade the office of one of the
coal-meters of the City of London. He resigned the hammer to William
Hone about 1812, and died at Camberwell in February, 1817. A sketch of
his life and a portrait of him appear in the fifth volume of the
_Wonderful Magazine_.

[Illustration: _Staircase at Puttick and Simpson's._]

After Sotheby's, the most important of the book-auctioneers of to-day
are Messrs. Puttick and Simpson; Christie, Manson and Woods; and Hodgson
and Co. The first-named have since December, 1858, occupied the greater
portion of the house in Leicester Square in which Sir Joshua Reynolds
lived throughout his brilliant career, and where he died in 1792. The
auction-room was formerly the artist's studio; the office was his
dining-room; the upper portion of the house is occupied by Mr. H. Gray,
the topographical bookseller. The place has been altered since the
distinguished painter resided there, but in this age of iconoclasm it is
pleasant to wander in the passages and rooms where all the wit, beauty,
and intellect of the latter part of the last century congregated--where
Johnson and Boswell, Burke, Garrick, Goldsmith and Malone met in good
fellowship. The founder of the firm was a Mr. Stewart (see p. 112), who
started in Piccadilly in 1794, and who continued here until about 1825,
when he took into partnership Benjamin Wheatley, who had been at
Sotheby's, and a son of the printer, Adlard; for a while the firm was
John and James Fletcher, but early in 1846, the two and only partners
were Mr. Puttick and the present Mr. William Simpson; the former died in
1873, and the business is now in the hands of Mr. Simpson and his son.
The most important sale held at Puttick's was that of the Sunderland
Library from Blenheim Palace, which, commencing on December 1, 1881,
occupied from that date up to March 22, 1883, fifty-one days, the 13,858
lots realizing the gross total of £56,581 6s. On April 21, 1884, and ten
following days, the exceedingly fine topographical library of the Earl
of Gosford was sold at Puttick's, the total of the sale being £11,318
5s. 6d.; the most remarkable item in the sale was a fine large copy of
the first volume of the Mazarin Bible in the original binding, which was
knocked down to Mr. Toovey for £500; and next in interest to this was a
copy of the First Folio Shakespeare, 1623, measuring 12-7/8 inches by
8-3/8 inches, quite perfect, but with the title and verses mounted, and
the margins of two leaves slightly mended, and this sold for £470. The
extensive library of L. L. Hartley (see p. 87) was also disposed of at
Puttick's, 1885-87, and realized the total of £16,530; and other
important libraries dispersed there during the last half-century include
the Donnadieu books and MSS., 1847-58, £3,923; a portion of the Libri
Collection, 1850-68, £8,929; Dawson Turner's books and MSS., 1859,
£9,453; Edward Crowinshield's (of Boston, N.E.) books and MSS., 1860,
£4,826; Sir Edward Dering's books and MSS., 1861, £7,259; the Emperor
Maximilian's Mexican Library, 1869, £3,985; John Camden Hotten's stock,
1873, £3,751; Sir Edward Nichols' (Secretary to Charles I., whose state
papers were sold privately to the British Museum) books, 1877, £977; the
library of J. Duerdin, consigned from Australia, 1884, £1,140; books
from William Penn's Library, 1872, £1,350; the library of Señor Don Jose
Fernando Ramirez, 1880, £6,957; and many others. Literary property forms
a comparatively small portion of Messrs. Puttick and Simpson's business,
a very important part of which consists in the sale and private
dispersal of musical property of every description, as well as pictures,
prints, porcelain and jewels.

The firm of Hodgson and Co. dates its origin from the twenties of the
present century, the late Edmund Hodgson (who died in May, 1875, aged
81) starting in partnership with Robert Saunders at 39, Fleet Street, as
an auctioneer of literary property, the premises having been originally
the Mitre Tavern (see p. 222). In the interval the place had been
christened the 'Poets' Gallery.' When the property passed into the hands
of Messrs. Hoare, the partnership between Saunders and Hodgson
terminated, and the latter removed to 192, Fleet Street, at the corner
of Chancery Lane (on the site now occupied by Partridge and Cooper),
where Mr. Hodgson remained for many years. The march of improvement
again overtook him, and the business was once more removed, this time to
its present site at 115, Chancery Lane, which was specially erected for
the peculiar requirements of a book-auction house. The late Mr. Hodgson
for many years officiated in the rostrum of nearly all the chief trade
dinner sales, and literary property to the value of some £50,000 would
frequently be disposed of by him during an evening. His son, the present
head of the firm, officiated in a similar capacity for some years,
until, in fact, the pleasant custom of trade dinners became almost
obsolete. The firm has dispersed, in its time, many important libraries
and stocks of books, among which we may specially mention the valuable
collection of books of the College of Advocates, Doctors' Commons,
London, Monday, April 22, 1861, and seven following days (2,456 lots);
the stocks or superfluous stocks of books of Charles Knight, Owen Jones,
G. Cox, R. Bentley, 'Standard Novels'; Bradbury and Evans's, April, 1862
(eight days); Arthur Hall, Virtue and Co., November, 1862; Darton and
Hodge, 1863, 1866, and 1867; Lionel Booth, May, 1866; Day and Son, 1865,
1867, and 1868; Sampson Low and Co., in consequence of the death of
Sampson Low, jun., 1871; Moxon and Co., October, 1871, when a four days'
sale resulted in over £12,000; Cassell and Co., in consequence of the
removal to Belle Sauvage Yard, September, 1875, five days' sale (4,400
lots); and very many others.

[Illustration: _Mr. James Christie, 'The Specious Orator.'_

Engraved by R. Dighton, 1794.]

The firm of Christie, Manson and Woods dates its establishment from
1762, but its fame is almost exclusively built upon its picture-sales.
During its existence, however, the firm has sold several more or less
important libraries, such as those of James Edwards, the bookseller,
'the library of a gentleman of distinguished taste,' April, 1804; Rev.
L. Dutens (four days), February, 1813; the Earl of Gainsborough, March,
1813; the Hon. C. F. Greville, 1809; Sir William Hamilton, C.B., and
Viscount Nelson, 1809; Sir James Pulteney (eight days), February, 1812;
the Earl of Aylesford, 1879; Earl of Clarendon, 1877; C.
Beckett-Denison, 1885; Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1785; J. P. Knight, R.A.,
1881; Earl of Liverpool, 1829; W. Macready, 1873; Rev. W. Bentinck L.
Hawkins, in three parts, 1895, and others.


II.

The step from book-auctioneers to book-prices is a very easy one to
take, but the subject is far less easily disposed of. A book is worth
just as much as its vendor can get for it, and no more. Rarity is not
synonymous with high commercial value. There may be only four copies of
a particular book in existence, but if the only three people in the
world who want it have provided themselves with a copy each, the fourth
example is not worth twopence. We have seen this kind of thing
illustrated within the past few years. Very small poets are published in
very small editions, but nobody buys them, and the books therefore have
no market value--in fact, they are superfluous. Hundreds of rare books
are superfluous. The auction-room is the great leveller of all manner of
unmerited fame, and it may be taken, as a general rule, to be an
infallible guide.

We have but little information concerning the prices paid for
second-hand books during the seventeenth century. The retailer's safest
possible guide, of course, would be the price at which he acquired a
particular book, or, if more than one, by the very simple process of
averaging. One of the earliest and fullest illustrations we can cite
occurs in connection with some of the prices paid for books for the
Chetham Library of Manchester in 1663, and these are curious as well as
interesting. Thus, Holland's 'Heröologia,' 1620, a good copy of which
now realizes from £20 to £30, was purchased for 14s. Purchas's 'His
Pilgrimes,' 1625-26, which now sells at auction, if in good condition,
at about £50, was obtained for £3 15s. Dugdale's 'History of St. Paul's'
cost 12s., and the same author's 'Antiquities of Worcestershire,' 1656,
£1 7s. 6d.; the former now sells at prices varying from £5 to £10, and
the latter, when in good condition, is not expensive at 18 guineas. In
and about 1740 several book-sales occurred at or near Manchester, when a
large number of rare items realized painfully small prices. For
instance, the 'Treatise concernynge the fruytfull saynges of Davyd the
Kynge and Prophete in the seven Penytencyall Psalms,' 1508, by Fisher,
Bishop of Rochester; the 'Nova Legenda Sanctorum Angliæ,' 1516, both
printed by Wynkyn de Worde, were purchased together for 5s. 6d.!
Parsons' 'Conference about the next succession to the Crowne of
England,' 1594, cost 1s.; and the same Jesuit's 'Treatise of Three
Conversions of England,' 1603-4, 15s. A few months ago these two
publications realized close on £10 at auction. Tyndale's 'Practyse of
Prelates,' 1530, was obtained for 1s. 6d.; and his 'Briefe Declaration
of the Sacraments,' 1550, for 1s. 7d.; the former is now valued at 9
guineas, and the latter at 4 guineas. The English edition of Erasmus'
'Enchiridion Militis Christiani,' 1544, cost 6d., and is now worth
perhaps as many pounds. The bargain of the period, however, occurred in
connection with Sir Thomas Smyth's treatise 'De Republica et
administratione Anglorum,' 1610; Raleigh's 'Prerogative of Parliaments'
(?) 1628; and Burton's 'Protestation Protested,' which, together,
realized 4d.! Each of these books is now extremely rare.

Thirteen years after the above-mentioned books changed hands at prices
which can now only be described as heartbreaking, the first auction-sale
took place. It is noteworthy--as Mr. Lawler has pointed out--that 'the
first libraries which were sold by auction were those of Puritan divines
who had lived and worked under the Commonwealth Government; these
libraries were consequently composed of books suited to their calling,
consisting almost entirely of theological and historical books.' Life
was too awful a thing with them to indulge in a 'roguish' French novel,
a Shakespearian play, or one of the many dramatic works which seemed for
a time to kill all religious activity. A few of the items dispersed in
the first sales will not be without interest. Dr. Seaman's copy of the
_editio princeps_ Homer in Greek, 1488, sold for 9s.; the Crawford copy
realized £135--true, the latter was bound by Trautz-Bauzonnet. In the
former sale a copy of Dr. Eliot's Indian Bible sold for 19s.; if it
occurred at auction now it might realize anything from £100 to £600. At
the Restoration everything in the way of books of prayers was discarded,
and sold for a few pence; they would now readily sell almost for their
weight in gold. There is a startling uniformity about the prices
realized for books at the early book-sales, and one feels almost
inclined to suppose that our forbears were influenced chiefly by the
size of the volumes. It is interesting to note that the great folio
editions of the Fathers realized in the end of the seventeenth century
pretty much the same prices as at the end of the nineteenth, and these,
it need hardly be said, are very small indeed.

From the sale of the library of Sir Kenelm Digby at the Golden Lion, in
Paternoster Row, in April, 1680, we get a few highly interesting facts.
This sale comprised 3,878 lots, and realized the total of £908 4s. Here
are a few of the items:

                                                                £  s. d.
  Æschylus, Stanley, London, 1664                               1  0  0
  Ascham's 'Toxophilus,' 1545                                   0  1  4
  Barclay's 'Ship of Fools,' 1570                               0  4  4
  Bible of the Douay Translation, with the Rhenish Testament,
    3 vols., 4to., 1633                                         1  5  0
  Chaucer's Works, folio, 1597                                  0 12  8
  Dugdale's 'Monasticon Anglicanum,' 3 vols., 1655, etc.        6  6  0
  Fabyan's 'Chronicle,' London, 1559                            0  7  4
  Hollinshed's 'Chronicle,' London, 1577                        0  8  0
  Homerus cum comment. Eustathii, 4 vols., folio, corio turcico
    et folio deaur. Romæ, 1542                                  7  0  0
  Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' London, 1668                        0  2  1
  'P. Plowman's Vision,' London, 1550                           0  1  7
  Purchas's 'Pilgrims and Pilgrimage,' 5 vols., 1625-66         3  5  6
  Shakespeare's Works, London, 1632 (second edition)            0 14  0

A comparison of the foregoing prices with those which the books would
realize to-day will suggest some interesting conclusions; but as the
means of doing this are in the hands of everyone, it is not necessary to
discuss them here. In the Bodleian Library there is an exceedingly
interesting letter from R. Scott, the bookseller, to Samuel Pepys, dated
June 30, 1688. Scott writes: 'Having at length procured Campion, Hanmer
and Spencer's Hist. of Ireland, fol. (which I think you formerly
desired), I here send itt you, with 2 very scarce bookes besides, viz.
Pricæi Defensio Hist. Britt. 4{o} and old Harding's Chronicle, as alsoe
the Old Ship of Fooles in verse by Alex. Berkley, priest; which last,
though nott scarce, yet so very fayre and perfect, that seldome comes
such another; the Priceus you will find deare, yett I never sold it
under 10s., and att this tyme can have it of a person of quality; butt
without flattery, I love to find a rare book for you, and hope shortly
to procure for you a perfect's Hall's Chronicle.' With the books Scott
sent his statement of account as follows:

                                        £  s.  d.
  Campion, Hanmer and Spenser, fol.     0  12  0
  Harding's 'Chronicle,' 4to.           0   6  0
  'Pricæi Defens. Hist. Brit.'          0   8  0
  'Shipp of Fooles,' fol.               0   8  0
                                        --------
                                        1  14  0

Whether Scott obtained these items at the Digby sale or not, we cannot
say; it is by no means unlikely, and if so, his desire to do Mr. Pepys a
good turn may be estimated by the fact that he made a profit of 3s. 8d.
over the last item in the bill, and the profit on the others would
doubtless be arranged on a similar scale. The second and the fourth
items, however, would be now worth from 15 to 20 guineas. Both Sir John
Price's 'Historiæ Britannicæ,' 1573, and the histories of Ireland by
Hanmer, Campion and Spenser, 1633, are very rare and very important
books, and would not be dear now at as many guineas as Scott has charged
shillings.

Book-auctions were not, however, unmixed blessings, and, as a fact, they
provoked a good many curses from the poorer collectors. Here is one
phase which concerns the sale of the library of John Bridges,[121:A] the
Northamptonshire historian, in 1726. This auction is interesting, not so
much on account of the books which were knocked down, or of the prices
which they realized, but as being the genesis of the knock-out system.
We have, fortunately, a very vivid picture of this sale from the pen of
Humfrey Wanley, who wished to obtain some of the items for the library
of Lord Oxford. In his 'Diary,' under date February, 1726, we read:
'Went to Mr. Bridges' Chamber [No. 6, Lincoln's Inn] to see the three
fine MSS. again, the doctor, his brother, having locked them up. He
openly bids for his own books, merely to enhance their price, and the
auction proves to be, what I thought it would become, very knavish.' And
again: 'Yesterday, at five, I met Mr. Noel, and tarried long with him;
we settled then the whole affair touching his bidding for my Lord at the
roguish sale of Mr. Bridges' books. The Rev. Doctor, one of the
brothers, hath already displayed himself so remarkably as to be both
hated and despised; and a combination amongst the booksellers will soon
be against him and his brother the lawyer. They are men of the keenest
avarice, and their very looks (according to what I am told) dart out
harping irons. I have ordered Mr. Noel to drop every article in my
Lord's Commission when they shall be hoisted up to too high a price.'

We get another interesting view of the subject a year later. Hearne, the
antiquary, writing to Dr. R. Rawlinson, the well-known book-collector,
November 27, 1727, observes: 'I wanted much to hear from yourself how
matters went in your auctions, and was glad at last to have one
[letter], though I am very sorry to find you have had such bad usage,
when you act so honourably. But I am too sensible, that booksellers and
others are in a combination against you. Booksellers have the least
pretence of any to act so. Your brother (whom I shall always call my
friend) did them unspeakable kindness. By his generous way of bidding,
and by his constant buying, he raised the value of books incredibly, and
there is hardly such another left. The booksellers (who go so much by
him) owe him a statue, the least they can do. But instead of that, they
neither speak well of him, nor do you (as I verily believe) common
justice.' In a letter from Benjamin Heath, the well-known
book-collector, to 'Mr. John Mann, at the Hand in Hand Fire Office in
Angel Court, on Snow Hill,' dated March 21, 1738, we get yet another
glimpse of some phases of book-auctions in the earlier part of the last
century. Fletcher Gyles, a bookseller of Holborn, published a catalogue
of a book-auction which he purposed holding at his own place of
business. 'Mr. Gyles,' writes Heath, 'has offered himself to act for me,
but as I think 'tis too great a Trial to his Honesty to make him at the
same time Buyer and Seller . . . I have been able to think of no Friend
I could throw this trouble [of buying certain books] upon but you.' For
this service, the collector 'would willingly allow 3 guineas, which, the
Auction continuing 24 Days, is 3 shillings over and above half a Crown a
Day.' The 'Auction requires the Attendance of the whole day, beginning
at Eleven in the Morning, and Ending at two, and at five in the
Afternoon, and Ending at Eight.'

[Illustration: _Benjamin Heath, Book-collector, 1738._]

A chronological account of the book-sales of London would be an
important as well as an interesting contribution to the history of
literature. But our space is limited, and only the chief features of
such a history can be dealt with in this place. If one were asked to
name the most famous book in the annals of book-sales, the answer would
be at once forthcoming and emphatic--the Valdarfer Boccaccio, otherwise
'Il Decamerone di Messer Giovanni Boccaccio,' printed at Venice by
Christopher Valdarfer in 1471, and published, it is thought, at about
10s. In stating that this book is the most famous one, it is almost
unnecessary to explain that the Roxburghe copy is understood. By what
means it got into the hands of a London bookseller (about the middle of
the last century) is not known. It is certain, however, that even at
that period he knew of its excessive rarity, for he offered it to the
two great contemporary book-collectors, Lord Oxford and Lord Sunderland,
for 100 guineas, an amount which at that time must have 'appeared
enormously extravagant.' Whilst these two collectors were deliberating,
an ancestor of the Duke of Roxburghe saw and purchased it. Shortly after
this event the two noble collectors were dining with the Duke, and the
subject of Boccaccio was purposely broached. Both Lord Oxford and Lord
Sunderland began to talk of the particular copy which had been offered
them. The Duke of Roxburghe told them that he thought he could show them
a copy of this edition, which they doubted, but, to their mortification,
the Duke produced the identical copy, over which both realized that he
who hesitates is lost. Beloe, in relating this anecdote, which was told
him by G. Nicol, the royal bookseller, predicted that if this copy came
under the hammer it would produce 'not much less than £500.' As a matter
of fact and of history, at the Roxburghe sale in 1812 it realized the
then huge sum of £2,260, the buyer being the Marquis of Blandford, who,
it is said, was prepared to go to £5,000. There were three noble
candidates for this choice book, the Duke of Devonshire, Earl Spencer,
and the Marquis of Blandford, whilst an agent of Bonaparte was known to
be present. The Rev. Mr. Dibdin has given a very highly-coloured and
vivid account of this famous incident in his 'Bibliographical
Decameron,' and we need do no more than refer to the fact that 'the
honour of making the first bid was due to a gentleman from Shropshire,
who seemed almost surprised at his own temerity in offering 100
guineas.' It is a curious commentary on even the fame of rare books that
this copy of the Valdarfer Boccaccio came again into the sale-room in
1819, when the Blandford library was sold, and when it became the
property of Earl Spencer for £918. 'I will have it when you are dead,'
was the savage retort of a defeated book-lover at an auction sale, and
such perhaps was Earl Spencer's mental determination when his rival
carried off the bargain--by waiting seven years he saved £1,242, as well
as possessing himself of one of the greatest of bibliographical
rarities.

[Illustration: _Specimen of type of the Mazarin Bible._]

Although far before the Valdarfer Boccaccio in every point except that
of sensationalism, the first printed Bible, the Biblia Latina of
Gutenberg, 1455, commonly known as the Mazarin, has had an exciting
history in the way of prices. It is not only the first, but one of the
most magnificent books which ever issued from the press. It is not at
all a rare book in the usual sense of the word, for there are in
existence nineteen copies on paper, and five on vellum, the majority of
which are in this country. The most celebrated example of this splendid
book is now in the British Museum. The earliest record of this is its
possession by M. L. J. Gaignat, at whose sale in 1768 it became the
property of Count McCarthy for 1,200 francs; and from his sale, in
Paris, in 1815, it passed into Mr. Grenville's library for 6,260
francs--in other words, it had advanced in value in forty-six years from
£48 to close on £250. It subsequently passed into the British Museum.
Early in the present century, Nicol, the King's bookseller, obtained the
copy on vellum, formerly in the University of Mentz; at his sale in 1825
it was bought by H. Perkins, the book-collecting brewer (Barclay,
Perkins and Co.), for £504, and at the sale of his library it fetched
£3,400, Mr. Ellis purchasing it for Lord Ashburnham. In 1824 Mr. Perkins
bought Sir M. M. Sykes' copy of the same book on paper for £199 10s.,
and this copy in 1873 fetched £2,960. James Perry, of the _Morning
Chronicle_, had a copy on paper, which, at his sale in 1822, the Duke of
Sussex purchased for 160 guineas; and this copy, at the Duke's sale in
1844, brought £190. The record price for the 'Mazarin' Bible was not
reached until December, 1884, when the Syston Park library of Sir John
Thorold came under the hammer at Sotheby's, and this particular Bible on
paper sold for £3,900 to Mr. Quaritch, or £500 more than the practically
unique one on vellum. In June, 1887, the Earl of Crawford's copy, which
was not a particularly good one, realized £2,000, Mr. Quaritch having
purchased it about thirty years previously for rather more than a
quarter of the amount. In 1889 yet another copy turned up at
Sotheby's--it came from the Earl of Hopetoun's library--and this sold at
the same figure. We may also refer here to the second edition of the
Bible, 1462, but the first printed book with a date. The Edwards copy on
vellum of this sold in 1815 for £175; in 1823 a very fine example was
sold for £215; in 1873 the Perkins copy, which had cost its owner £173,
sold for £780; and eight years later the Sunderland example on vellum
for £1,600.

[Illustration: _A Corner in the British Museum._]

The palm of the highest price ever paid for a single book must be
awarded to the 'Psalmorum Codex,' printed, like the last, by Fust and
Schoeffer in 1459. By the side of this the Gutenberg Bible is a common
book, and Sir John Thorold's example is the only one which has occurred
in the market for almost a century. This particular copy realized 3,350
francs in the McCarthy sale, and 130 guineas in that of Sir M. M. Sykes;
but at the Thorold sale, in 1884, it fetched £4,950. Of the 'Codex'
there are only nine copies known, all of which slightly differ from one
another. We may also include here a mention of a copy of the Balbi
'Catholicon'--'Summa Quæ vocatur Catholicon, sive Grammatica et Linguæ
Latina'--1460, for which Sir John Thorold paid £65 2s., and which at his
sale fetched £400. The British Museum copy of this book belonged to Dr.
Mead, at whose sale it was purchased for £25 for the French King; the
copy subsequently became the property of West, at whose sale it became
George III.'s for £35 3s. 6d. The Balbi 'Catholicon,' of 1460, is the
fourth book printed with a date, and is one of the few indubitable
productions of Gutenberg's press. It is an indispensable volume in a
collection of books printed in the fifteenth century. Its literary merit
is very considerable, and the London editor of 'Stephani Thesaurus
Latinus' has pronounced it the best Dictionary for the Latin Fathers and
Schoolmen. In addition to the copies just mentioned, a fine example,
bound in russia-extra by Roger Payne, occurred in the Wodhull sale,
January 12, 1886, and realized £310. This or a similar copy was priced
in Quaritch's 'Catalogue of the Monuments of the Early Printers,' at
£420.

The decline in the value of what may be termed ordinary editions of the
classics during the present century has unquestionably been very great.
Even the _editiones principes_ have scarcely maintained their former
values; whilst their appearance in the book-market does not call forth
anything like the enthusiasm and excitement which at one time prevailed.
The Askew sale in 1775 was the first at which really sensational prices
were reached throughout for the first editions of the Greek and Latin
classics. Although some of these prices have been exceeded in many cases
since that period, it is tantamount to a confession that they have gone
down in value when it is stated that the Askew prices are as nearly as
possible the same at which identical copies are now to be had. As we
shall see presently, there are several exceptions to this rule; but
these exceptions occur, not because they are the _editiones principes_
of Homer or Virgil, as the case may be, but because they are the works
of some eminent printer. And herein the change is a very striking one.
The first edition of every classic has a literary or technical value
almost equal to a manuscript, from which, of course, it is directly
printed; but the first editions of the classics are not now collected
because of their textual value, and not at all unless they are fine
examples of typographical skill. The curious vicissitudes of these
editions would alone occupy a fairly large volume; but we propose
dealing briefly with the subject by comparing the prices at which good
copies were sold in and about 1775, when Dr. Harwood published his
useful little 'View of the Various Editions of the Greek and Roman
Classics,' with those at which they may be now acquired.

[Illustration: _Aldus, from a contemporary Medal._]

Beginning with the _editio princeps_ Homer, 1488, the fine copy of this
edition in the British Museum was purchased, Dr. Harwood tells us, for
£17. A 'large, pure, and fine' copy of this exceedingly rare work is now
priced at £150, whilst the Wodhull copy sold in 1886 for £200.[129:A]
But whilst this edition has increased enormously in pecuniary value,
'one of the most splendid editions of Homer ever delivered to the
world'--namely, that of the Foulis brothers, Glasgow, 1756-58--has only
doubled its price, or has increased in value from two to four guineas.
The very beautifully-printed _editio princeps_ of Anacreon, printed in
Paris by Henri Stephan, 1554, remains stationary, for its value then, as
now, is one guinea. Of the Aldine first edition of Sophocles, 1502, Lord
Lisburne purchased 'a beautiful copy' in 1775 for 1-1/2 guineas; the
present value of a similar example would range from 8 to 20 guineas,
whilst a slightly imperfect copy sells for about £1. The first edition
of Euripides, 1503, also printed at the Aldine Press, has advanced from
£1 16s. to £3 10s. to 6 guineas, according to the eminence of the
binder. A 'most beautiful' copy of the first Herodotus, Aldus, 1502,
realized £2 15s. in 1775, but cannot now be had for less than twice that
amount; whilst an example in a fine Derome binding of red morocco extra
is priced at 12 guineas. The first Aristophanes, likewise from the press
of Aldus, 1498, shows a slight advance from £4 to 5 guineas. The
earliest issue of Isocrates, 1493, is one of the rarest of the
_incunabula_, as it is one of the most beautiful when in perfect
condition. The exceedingly fine example in the British Museum was
bought by the authorities in 1775 for £11; copies may now be had for
£15.

The first (Aldine) edition of Plato has advanced in value from 5 guineas
to just twice that sum. The very beautiful copy of this _editio
princeps_ on vellum, and now in the British Museum, was purchased by the
Museum authorities at Dr. Askew's sale in 1775 for 53 guineas. The
commercial value of the very scarce and splendid first edition, in six
volumes (Aldus, 1495-98), of Aristotle, shows a depreciation--from 17 to
15 guineas--although it has realized in comparatively recent years as
much as £51. Dr. Harwood adds to his entry of this book: 'The finest
copy of this first edition of Aristotle's works, perhaps in Europe, is
in Dr. Hunter's Museum.' Dr. Hunter gave £4 6s. for a 'most beautiful
copy of the first edition of Theocritus,' Aldus, 1495--an edition which
also includes Hesiod, Theognis, Phocylides, etc.,--the value of which is
now placed at £10. A much more considerable advance is seen in
connection with the _editio princeps_ of Musæus, 1494, a choice and
beautiful book, which is at once the first and rarest production of the
Aldine Press. George III. gave in 1775 17 guineas for a fine copy, which
would now realize twice that amount. An almost equally emphatic advance
may be chronicled in connection with the 'Anthologia Græca,' Florence,
1494, printed throughout in capital letters, which, selling for 15
guineas a century and a quarter ago, is now worth nearly double; whilst
the Sunderland copy in 1881 brought £51. The first impressions of
Diodorus Siculus, 1539, and Stephanus Byzantius, Aldus, 1502, are
stationary at about £2 each, and Lucian, Florence, 1496, now, as in
1776, sells for £20.

Passing over a whole host of minor names in the list of Greek authors,
we may venture upon a few facts in connection with the Latin writers.
Virgil would, of course, come at the head of this list; but the examples
which came under Dr. Harwood's notice have no commercial value
indicated. George III. gave £17 6s. 6d. for the very fine copy of the
first Horace (about 1472) in Dr. Askew's sale--a fairly good example is
now priced at £50--whilst the first commentated edition of this author,
Milan, 1474, has advanced from 9-1/2 guineas to 30 guineas; it is
exceedingly rare, particularly the first of the two volumes. The first
Aldine Horace (1501) has gone up from £2 5s. to £15, and other editions
from the same press have about quadrupled in value. Of the first edition
of Ovid's 'Opera' (1471) only one copy is known, and the second,
Bologna, 1480, is scarcely less rare, and certainly not less valuable,
than the first. Dr. Harwood prices a very fine copy at £10 5s., or about
a third of its present value. The first dated edition of Valerius
Maximus was printed by Schöffer at Mentz in 1471, but is apparently not
a very popular book with collectors, for whereas in 1775 a beautiful
copy was valued at £26, its present price is only £28. A much more
popular book, Seneca's 'Tragoediæ,' printed about 1475, has advanced
from 4-1/2 guineas to £18, or, an exceptionally good copy bound by
Bedford, £25.

Although for several centuries one of the most popular of books, some of
the earlier editions of Pliny's 'Historia Naturalis' do not keep up
their price. The second edition, Rome, 1470, which is rarer than the
first--issued at Venice the year before--may now be had for 12 guineas.
The British Museum copy of the first edition cost the nation £43 in
1775. The edition printed by Jenson at Venice in 1472 is, however, much
sought after, for it is a very beautiful book, with a splendidly
illuminated border on the first page of the text. The British Museum
copy cost at Dr. Askew's sale £23, whilst Mr. Quaritch quotes an example
at £140; but, then, the latter copy is printed on vellum, which makes
all the difference. Silius Italicus is not by any means an author whose
work is at present much studied, but the first edition of his 'Opera'
(1471) is a book worth mentioning, because for beauty and grace it is
unsurpassed by any of the works ever published by the first Italian
printers, Sweynheim and Pannartz. The British Museum copy cost in 1775
£13 2s. 6d., whilst it is now worth about £25. The superb copy in the
British Museum of the _editio princeps_ Juvenal and Persius (printed at
Rome about the year 1469) cost the country 13 guineas; a first-class
example is now valued at £12. On the other hand, the Aldine edition of
Martial's 'Epigrammata' (1501) has gone up in value from 2 guineas to
£10, or even £17 10s., according to condition. The first edition of
Justin (printed at Venice, 1470) has declined, for the British Museum
copy cost 13 guineas in 1775, whilst a fine copy may now be had for 10
guineas.

A very different story has to be told with reference to the books and
pamphlets produced by the early English printers. Until the latter part
of the last century, these items were the despised of the scholarly and
aristocratic collector. A few antiquaries found them not without
interest, but they had only a nominal commercial value. At the sale of
Dr. Francis Bernard, at his 'late dwelling house in Little Britain,' in
October, 1698, thirteen Caxtons were sold, as follows:

                                                   £   s.  d.
  'The Boke called Cathon,' 1483                   0   3   0
  'Chastising of Goddes Chyldern'                  0   1  10
  'Doctrinal of Sapience,' 1489   }
  'Chastising of Goddes Chyldern' }                0   5   0
  'Chronicle of England,' _very old_               0   4   0
  'Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers,' 1477   0   5   4
  'Game and Playe of the Chesse,' 1474             0   1   6
  'Godefroy of Boloyne,' 1481                      0   4   0
  'Historyes of Troy,' 1500                        0   3   0
  'Jason and the Golden Fleece'                    0   3   6
  'Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye,' 1502       0   3   0
  Another copy                                     0   3   0
  'Tullius of Olde Age'                            0   4   2
                                                  ----------
                                                  £2   1   4

Eighty years later, when the library of John Ratcliffe[132:A] was sold
at Christie's (March 27, 1776), a collection of upwards of thirty
Caxtons came under the hammer, and of these we will only quote seven
examples:

                                                             £  s. d.
  'Chronicles of Englande,' fine copy, 1480                  5  5  0
  'Doctrinal of Sapience,' 1489                              8  8  0
  'The Boke called Cathon,' 1483                             5  5  0
  'The Polytique Book, named Tullius de Senectute,' 1481    14  0  0
  'The Game and Playe of Chesse'                            16  0  0
  'The Boke of Jason'                                        5 10  0
  'Legenda Aurea,'[133:A] 1483                               9 15  0

At the Watson Taylor and Perry sales in 1823, four examples, nearly all
fine copies, of Caxton's books realized a total of £239 5s., as follows:

                                                             £  s. d.
  'The Life of Jason,' 1476-77                              95 11  0
  'The Boke called Cathon,' 1483                            30 19  6
  'Troylus and Creside,' 1484                               66  0  0
  Virgil's 'Eneidos,' 1490, very fine and perfect           46 14  6

[Illustration: _The Fifty-seven Althorp Caxtons._]

We do not think that the foregoing sets of figures call for any
elaborate comment. The present value of each item may be averaged at
from £250 to £300, but the majority are absolutely unprocurable at any
price. The highest sum ever paid for a Caxton is £1,950, at which amount
the only perfect copy known of 'King Arthur,' 1485, was knocked down at
the sale of the Earl of Jersey's books in 1885. At the same sale the
'Histoires of Troy,' _circa_ 1474, realized £1,820. In 1812 the Duke of
Devonshire gave £1,060 12s. for a copy of this book, for which the Duke
of Roxburghe had paid £50 a few years previously. The Syston Park copy
of the 'Mirrour of the World,' 1481, sold in 1884 for £335; Higden's
'Polychronicon, 1482, is valued at £500; Lord Selsey's copy of Gower's
'Confessio Amantis,' 1483, sold in 1872 for £670; and Lord Jersey's, in
1885, for £810. The 'Hystorye of Kynge Blanchardyn and Princes
Eglantyne,' 1485, imperfect, but one of the rarest of this press,
realized £21 at the Mason sale, 1798-99, the purchaser being John, Duke
of Roxburghe, at whose sale in June, 1812, Lord Spencer gave £215 5s.
for it. According to the latter's note in the copy, 'The Duke and I had
agreed not to oppose one another at the [Mason] sale; but after the book
was bought, to toss up who should win it; when I lost.' A tract of five
leaves, by John Russell, 'Propositio ad illustriss. principem Karoleum
ducem Burgundie,' etc. (printed probably at Bruges, 1475), of which no
other copy is known, was purchased by a bookseller in the West End of
London for £2 5s. He sold it to the Duke of Marlborough for 50 guineas,
and at his sale in 1819 Earl Spencer purchased it for 120 guineas. There
are about 560 examples of Caxton's books in existence. Of these, about
one half are in the British Museum, the Althorp or Rylands library (57),
at Cambridge, in the Bodleian, and in the Duke of Devonshire's library.
Of this total thirty-one are unique, and seven exist only in a
fragmentary form. The greater number are safely locked up in public or
private libraries, and are not likely, under ordinary circumstances, to
come into the market. A great quantity of romance has been written
respecting Caxtons. In Scott's 'Antiquary,' 'Snuffy Davy' is stated to
have bought a perfect copy of the 'Game of Chess,' the first book
printed in England, for about two groschen, or twopence of our money.
This he sold to Osborne for £20; it became Dr. Askew's property for 60
guineas, and at the Askew sale it realized £170, the purchaser being
George III. '"Could a copy now occur, Lord only knows," ejaculated
Monkbarns, with a deep sigh and lifted-up hands--"Lord only knows what
would be its ransom"; and yet it was originally secured, by skill and
research, for the easy equivalent of twopence sterling.' It has been
repeatedly stated that there is no foundation whatever for this
anecdote; but Scott himself expressly states in a note that it is
literally true, and that David Wilson 'was a real personage.' 'Snuffy
Davy' has been identified with Clarke, the bookseller of New Bond
Street, whose 'Repertorium Bibliographicum' is a most valuable book.
However that may be, it is certain that the King did not give any such
price at any such sale. The King's copy was purchased at West's sale in
1773 for £32 0s. 6d. At the Askew sale the King's purchases did not
exceed £300, and the items were almost exclusively editions of the
classics. It is certain, however, that Caxton's books have experienced
many ups and downs. Mr. Blades tells us of an incident in which he was
personally concerned. He happened on a copy of the 'Canterbury Tales' in
a dirty pigeon-hole close to the grate in the vestry of the French
Protestant Church, St. Martin's-le-Grand; it was fearfully mutilated,
and was being used leaf by leaf--a book originally worth £800.

[Illustration: _From 'Game and Play of Chesse,' by Caxton._]

Caxton's immediate successors met with a fate similar to his own. The
most remarkable feature of Richard Rawlinson's[136:A] library (sold by
Samuel Leigh in 1756), which contained nearly 25,000 volumes, consisted
in the large quantity of Old English black-letter books, and these, of
course, realized absurdly low figures, as the following list testifies:

                                                      £   s.  d.
  'The Newe Testament in English,' 1500               0   2   9
  'The Ymage of both Churches, after the Revelation
    of St. John,' by Bale, 1550                       0   1   6
  'The Boke called the Pype or Toune of Perfection,'
    by Richard Whytforde, 1532                        0   1   9
  'The Visions of Pierce Plowman,' 1561               0   2   0
  'The Creede of Pierce Plowman,' 1553                0   1   6
  'The Booke of Moses in English,' 1530               0   3   9
  'Bale's Actes of English Votaryes,' 1550            0   1   3
  'The Boke of Chivalrie,' by Caxton                  0  11   0
  'The Boke of St. Albans,' by W. de Worde            1   1   0

[Illustration: _Specimen of the type of 'The Boke of St. Albans.'_]

The very high price paid for the 'Boke of St. Albans' is noteworthy, for
nearly all the other items are equally rare. In 1844, a copy of this
'boke' was sold as waste-paper for 9d., and almost immediately passed
into the possession of Mr. Grenville for £70 or guineas. Dr. Mead's
copy--one of the only two known--of 'Rhetorica Nova Fratris Laurentii
Gulielmi de Sacra,' printed at St. Albans, 1480, sold for 2s. At the
Willett sale, in 1813, it brought £79 16s.

[Illustration: _Specimen page of Tyndale's Testament, 1526._]

The rarity of the English translations of the Bible and New Testament
arises from just the opposite cause which has operated in making the
early productions of the English press so scarce. The latter were for
the most part neglected out of existence, whilst the former were
literally read out of it. A complete copy of the _editio princeps_
Coverdale, 1535, is, we believe, unknown. One illustration will
sufficiently indicate the enhanced value of this book, and the
illustration may be taken as a general one in respect to this class of
book: The Perkins copy, which realized £400 in 1873, was purchased at
the Dent sale in 1827 for £89 5s. The more perfect of the only two
copies known of Tyndale's New Testament, first edition, 1526, in the
Baptists' Library at Bristol, is of great interest, and well deserving
of a mention in this place. It has no title-page. Underneath a portrait,
pasted to the first leaf, is this inscription:

       'Hoh Maister John Murray of Sacomb,
     The works of old Time to collect was his pride,
       Till oblivion dreaded his care;
     Regardless of friends intestate he dy'd,
       So the Rooks and the Crows were his heir.'

[Illustration: _John Murray, of Sacomb, Book-hunter._]

On the opposite leaf is a printed statement to this effect: 'On Tuesday
evening (13 May, 1760) at Mr. Langford's sale of Mr. Ames's books, a
copy of the translation of the New Testament by Tindall, and supposed to
be the only one remaining which escaped the flames, was sold for
fourteen guineas and a half. This very book was picked up by one of the
late Lord Oxford's collectors ['John Murray' written in the margin], and
was esteemed so valuable a purchase by his lordship, that he settled £20
a year for life upon the person who procured it. His Lordship's library
being afterwards purchased by Mr. Osborne, of Gray's Inn, he marked it
at fifteen shillings, for which price Mr. Ames bought it.' (John Murray
died in 1748.) On the other side of the leaf is another note, in
manuscript: 'N.B. This choice book was purchased at Mr. Langford's sale,
13th May, 1760, by me John White [for £15 14s. 6d.], and on the 13th day
of May, 1776, I sold it to the Rev. Dr. Gifford for 20 guineas.' Dr.
Gifford was an assistant librarian at the British Museum, and left his
library to the use of the Baptist Society at Bristol.

Before leaving the subject of Bibles, we may refer to one of the most
interesting events of the book-sale season of 1836, when, at Evans's on
April 27, the superb copy of St. Jerome's Bible, executed by Alcuin for
Charlemagne, came up for sale. Commenced about the year 778, it was not
completed till 800. When it was finished it was sent to Rome by his
friend and disciple, Nathaniel, who presented it to Charlemagne on the
day of his coronation; it was preserved by that monarch until his death.
Its subsequent history is full of interest, and would form an
entertaining chapter in the Adventures of Books. After its first owner's
death, it is supposed to have been given to the monastery of Prum in
Lorraine by Lothaire, the grandson of Charlemagne, who became a monk of
that monastery. In 1576, this religious house was dissolved, but the
monks preserved the manuscript, and carried it to Switzerland to the
abbey of Grandis Vallis, near Basle, where it reposed till the year
1793, when, on the occupation of the episcopal territory of Basle by the
French, all the property of the abbey was confiscated and sold, and the
manuscript in question came into the possession of M. Bennot, from whom,
in 1822, it was purchased by M. Speyr Passavant, who brought it into
general notice, and offered it for sale to the French Government at the
price of 60,000 francs; this was declined, when the proprietor knocked
off nearly 20,000 francs from the original demand, but still without
effecting a sale. M. Passavant subsequently brought it to England, and
offered it to the Duke of Sussex, who, however, declined it. It was then
offered to the British Museum for £12,000, then for £8,000, and at last
for £6,500, which he declared an 'immense sacrifice.' Unsuccessful at
every turn, he resolved to submit it to auction, and the precious volume
was entrusted to Evans. It was knocked down for £1,500, but to the
proprietor himself. After a further lapse of time, Passavant sold the
volume to the British Museum for £750. This splendid manuscript is a
large folio in delicate and beautifully formed minuscule characters,
with the beginnings of chapters in fine uncials, written in two columns
on the purest vellum. If this magnificent manuscript were now offered
for sale, it would probably realize at least £3,000.

The rise in the value of the First Folio Shakespeare only dates back for
about a century. Beloe, writing in 1806, states that he remembers the
time when a very fine copy could be purchased for five guineas. He
further observes, 'I could once have purchased a superb one for 9
guineas'; and (apparently) this 'superb' example realized 13 guineas at
Dr. Monro's sale in 1792. At the end of the last century it was thought
to have realized the 'top' price with 36 guineas. Dr. Askew had a fine
copy of the Second Folio, which realized at his sale, in 1775, £5
10s.--it had cost 2-1/2 guineas at Dr. Mead's sale--the purchaser being
George Steevens. In this book Charles I. had written these words: 'DUM
SPIRO, SPERO, C. R.,' and Sir Thomas Herbert, to whom the King presented
it the night before his execution, had also written: 'Ex dono
serenissimi Regis Car. servo suo Humiliss. T. Herbert.' Steevens
regarded the amount which he paid for it as 'enormous,' but at his sale
it realized 18 guineas, and was purchased for the King's library, and is
now, with some other books bought by George III., at Windsor. Steevens
supposes that the original edition could not have exceeded 250 copies,
and that £1 was the selling price. Its rarity ten or a dozen years after
its first appearance may be gauged by the fact that Charles I. was
obliged to content himself with a copy of the Second Folio; its rarity
at the present moment will be readily comprehended when it is stated
that during the past ninety years only five or six irreproachable
examples have occurred for sale. The copy for which the Duke of
Roxburghe gave 34 guineas, realized at his sale £100, and passed into
the library of the Duke of Devonshire. The example in the possession of
the Baroness Burdett-Coutts is a very fine one; it was formerly George
Daniel's copy, and realized 682 guineas at his sale in 1864. Height
makes a great difference in the price of a book of this sort. For
example, a good sound example measuring 12-1/4 inches by 8 inches is
worth about £136; another one measuring 13-1/8 by 8-3/8 inches would be
worth £300, and perhaps more. Dibdin, with his usual prophetic
inaccuracy, described the amount (£121 6s.) at which Mr. Grenville
obtained his copy as 'the highest price ever given, or likely to be
given, for the volume.' As a matter of fact, the time must come when it
will be no longer possible to obtain a perfect copy of this volume,
which to English people is a thousand times more important than the
Gutenberg Bible or the Psalmorum Codex.

The following list is believed to contain all the finest examples known
at present:

  FIRST FOLIO EDITIONS OF SHAKESPEARE, 1623.

                          Inches     Inches
                           High.      Wide.    Present Possessor.
  Loscombe                  12       × 8
  Sotheby's                 12-1/4   × 8
  Gardner                   12-3/8   × 8       Mr. Huth.
  Stowe                     12-3/8   × 8-1/8
  Poynder                   12-1/2   × 8-1/8
  Ellis                     12-5/8   × 8-1/8   Earl of Crawford.
  Quaritch's Catalogue      12-11/12 × 8
  Thomas Grenville          12-7/8   × 8-3/8   British Museum.
  Holland                   12-3/8   × 8-1/2
  Duke of Devonshire        13-1/8   × 8-1/8   Chatsworth.
  George Daniel             13-1/8   × 8-1/4   Baroness Burdett-Coutts.
  Beaufoy Library           13       × 8-3/8
  Locker-Lampson            13       × 8-3/8   Rowfant Library.
  Gosford (Earl of)         12-7/8   × 8-3/8
  Lord Vernon               13-1/16  × 8-3/8   America.
  Hartley                   13-1/8   × 8-1/2
  John Murray               13       × 8-1/2   Albemarle Street.
  Thorold                   13-3/8   × 8-1/2   America.
  Sir Robert Sydney,     }
    Earl of Leicester,   }
    with his arms on     }
    sides; original old  }  13-3/8   × 8-3/4   Mr. C. J. Toovey.
    calf, with lettering,}
    full of rough        }
    leaves               }

The Second, 1632, Third, 1664, and Fourth, 1685, Folios have
considerably advanced in value--the Second has risen from £15, at which
the Roxburghe copy was sold in 1812, to nearly £200; George Daniel's
copy, of the purest quality from beginning to end, and one of the
largest known, sold for £148, but fairly good copies may be had for half
that amount. The Third Folio, which is really the rarest, as most of the
impression was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, has gone up from
£20 or £30 to £200, or even more when the seven doubtful plays have the
separate title-page; and the Fourth Folio from £5 to about ten times
that amount. But the most remarkable feature in connection with
Shakespeare, so far as we are just now concerned, is the change which
has taken place in the value of the quartos. We give below a tabulated
list of first editions, in which this change will be seen at a glance:

                                              Former       Recent
                                              Price.       Price.
                                              £  s. d.     £  s. d.
  'The Merry Wives of Windsor,' 1818         18  0  0    385  0  0
  'Much Ado About Nothing,' {1797             7 10  0
                            {1818            17 17  0    267 10  0
  'Love's Labour Lost,' 1818                 40 10  0    316 10  0
  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' {1805           2  2  0
                              {1818          12 10  0    116  0  0
  'The Merchant of Venice' {1815              9  9  0
                           {1818             22  1  0    270  0  0
  'King Richard II.,' 1598,[143:A] 1800       4 14  6    108  3  0
  '2 Henry IV.,' 1797 (one leaf MS.)          8  8  0    225  0  0
  'Henry V.,' 1818                            5  7  6    211  0  0
  '1 Henry VI.,' 1801                        38  7  0     50  0  0
  'Richard III.,' 1818                       33  0  0    351 15  0
  'Troilus and Cressida,' 1800                5 10  0    110  0  0
  'Romeo and Juliet,' 1800                    6  0  0    160  0  0
  'Hamlet,' 1812                              4 13  0     36  0  0
  'King Lear,' 1800                          28  0  0     70  0  0
  'Othello' (1622), 1818                     56 14  0    155  0  0
  'Pericles,' 1812                            1 15  0     40  0  0
  'Lucrece'                                  21  0  0    250  0  0
  'Venus and Adonis'[143:B] (Malone's copy)  25  0  0    315  0  0
  'Poems'                                                 70  0  0
  'Sonnets' {1800                             3 10  0
            {1812                            21  0  0    230 15  0

[Illustration: _Title-page of the First Edition of 'The Compleat
Angler.'_]

What is true of the Shakespeare quartos and folios is also true in a
slightly less accentuated degree of the first editions of the sixteenth
and seventeenth century poets and dramatists. Dibdin describes a Mr.
Byng as having purchased the only known copy of Clement Robinson's
'Handefull of Pleasant Delites,' 1584, at a bookstall for 4d.; at his
sale this 'Handefull' was sold for 25 guineas to the Duke of
Marlborough, at whose sale, in 1819, it fetched £26 15s.

[Illustration: _From the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' Part II._]

Puttenham's 'Art of English Poesie,' 1589, and Gascoigne's 'Works,' are
two other striking illustrations of the increase in the value of old
English poetry, although the books themselves are of comparatively minor
importance from a literary point of view. Isaac Reed well remembered
when a good copy of either might have been had for 5s. In the first and
second decades of this century the prices had gone up to about £5, but
the present values would be nearer £20. Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,'
1590-96, early in the century could have been had for £3 12s.; it now
realizes ten times that amount if in fine condition. Milton's 'Paradise
Lost' has increased in the same ratio. Lovelace's 'Lucasta' has risen
from 11 guineas to nearly £50. The market value of a first edition of
Walton's 'Compleat Angler,' 1653, in 1816 was 4 guineas; in 1879 this
book fetched £52; it has since realized £310. Rarer even than the first
Walton is the first edition of Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress,' 1678;
Southey, writing in 1830, declared that the date of the first
publication of this work was at that time unknown, since no copy could
be traced. Not long after this an example--still in possession of Capt.
Holford, of Park Lane--turned up, and was valued at £50; during the last
few years four more have been unearthed: three of these are in England,
and the other is among the treasures of the Lenox Library, New York. The
commercial value of a copy is probably not much less than of a first
Walton. Although the first edition of the first part of the 'Pilgrim's
Progress' has always been considered so rare, the second part is even
rarer; indeed, only three copies are known to exist: one (very
imperfect) in the Astor Library in New York, one in the Rylands Library,
and the other in the hands of a collector in London. Till some ten years
since the two English copies were not known to exist; they were both
bought in one bundle for a few shillings in Sotheby's sale-room. The
imperfect American one was supposed to be unique till these came to
light.

Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield' sixty years ago was 'uncollected'; a
quarter of a century ago it sold for £5; ten years ago it was worth £10;
in 1891 a remarkably tall and clean copy, in the original calf as
issued, sold at Sotheby's for £94. Gray's 'Elegy,' 1751, sold for £1
16s. in 1888, and for £70 since then. Apropos of this 'Elegy,' there are
only three uncut copies known, and one of these was obtained by Mr.
Augustine Birrell, Q.C., a few years ago by a stroke of great good luck.
He happened to be passing through Chancery Lane one day, and, having a
little time at his disposal, dropped into Messrs. Hodgson's rooms, where
a sale of books was in progress. At the moment of his entry some volumes
of quarto tracts were being offered, and taking one of them in his hand,
he opened it at random, and saw--a fine uncut copy of the famous
'Elegy'! He bought the lot for a few shillings. It may be mentioned that
the original manuscript of Gray's 'Elegy' sold for £130 in 1854.

Such are a few of the excessively rare books, whose appearance in the
market is at all times an event in the book-collecting world. Partly as
an illustration of our forbears' wit, and partly as a list of curious
and highly imaginary titles, the following article from the _London
Magazine_ of September, 1759, is well worth quoting here:


     '_BOOKS selling by Auction, at the Britannia, near the
     Royal Exchange._

     _By_ L. FUNNIBUS, _Auctioneer_.

     '"Gratitude," a Poem, in twenty-four cantos, from the original
     German of Lady Mary Hapsburgh, published at Vienna in the year
     1756.--"Machiavel the Second, or Murder no Sin," from the
     French of Monsieur le Diable, printed at Paris for le Sieur
     Dæmon, in la Rue d'Enfer, near the Louvre.--"Cruelty a
     Virtue," a Political Tract, in two volumes, fine imperial
     paper, by Count Soltikoff.--"The Joys of Sodom," a Sermon,
     preached in the Royal Chapel at Warsaw, by W. Hellsatanatius,
     Chaplain to his Excellency Count Bruhl.--"The Art of
     Trimming," a Political Treatise, by the learned Van-Self, of
     Amsterdam.--"Self-Preservation," a Soliloquy, wrote extempore
     on an Aspen Leaf on the Plains of Minden; found in the pocket
     of an Officer who fell on the First of August.--"The Art of
     Flying," by Monsieur Contades; with a curious Frontispiece,
     representing Dismay with Eagle's Wings, and Glory with a pair
     of Crutches, following the French Army.--"The Reveries of a
     Superannuated Genius, on the Banks of Lake Liman, near
     Geneva," by M. Voltaire.--"The Spirit of Lying," from
     "L'Esprit Menteur" of Monsieur Maubert.--"Political
     Arithmetic," by the same Author; in which is proved to
     Demonstration that Two is more than Five, and that Three is
     less than One.--"The Knotty Question Discussed," wherein is
     proved that under certain circumstances, Wrong is Right, and
     Right is Wrong, by a Casuist of the Sorbonne.--"A New Plan of
     the English Possessions in America," with the Limits
     _properly_ settled, by Jeffery Amherst, Geographer to his
     Britannick Majesty.--"The Theory of Sea-fighting reduced to
     Practice," by E. Boscawen, Mariner.--"A Treatise on the
     Construction of Bridges," by I. Will, and I. Willnot,
     Architects, near the Black-Friars, at Louvain.--"The Spirit of
     Treaties," a very Curious Tract, in which is fairly proved,
     that absolute Monarchs have a right to explain them in their
     own sense, and that limited Princes are tied down to a strict
     observance of the letter.--"The Conquest of Hanover by the
     French, in the year 1759," a tragi-comic Farce, by a French
     officer.--"A Letter of Consolation from the Jesuits in the
     Shades, to their afflicted brethren at Lisbon," the second
     edition.--"The Fall of Fisher," an excellent new Ballad, by
     ---- Harvey, Esq.--"The Travels of a Marshal of France, from
     the Weser to the Mayne"; shewing how he and 10,000 of his
     companions miraculously escaped from the hands of the savage
     Germans and English; and how, after inexpressible
     difficulties, several hundreds of them got safe to their own
     country. Interspersed with several Curious Anecdotes of Rapes,
     Murders, and other French Gallantries; by P. L. C., a
     Benedictine Monk, of the Order of Saint Bartholomew.'

[Illustration]


FOOTNOTES:

[100:A] Cooper's hammer was of boxwood. Millington applies to his own
the Homeric line, +deinê de klangê genet' argnreoio bioio+, which anyone
is quite at liberty to believe. James Christie's original hammer is
still in the possession of the firm; Samuel Baker's belongs to Mr. H. B.
Wheatley.

[101:A] In 1686 Millington was selling the library of the deceased Lord
Anglesey. Putting up a copy of 'Eikon Basilike,' there were but few
bidders, and those very low in their biddings. Casually turning over the
pages before bringing the hammer on the rostrum, he read, with evident
surprise, the following note in Lord Anglesey's own handwriting: 'King
Charles the Second and the Duke of York did both (in the last session of
parliament, 1675, when I showed them, in the Lords' House, the written
copy of this book, wherein are some corrections, written with the late
King Charles the First's own hand) assure me that this was none of the
said king's compiling, but made by Dr. Gauden, Bishop of Exeter; which I
here insert for the understanding of others on this point, by attesting
so much under my own hand.--ANGLESEY.'

[121:A] There were 4,313 lots in this sale, the total of which was
£4,001. The catalogue has a very curious engraved frontispiece of an
oak-tree felled, and persons bearing away branches, with a Greek motto
signifying that, the oak being felled, every man gets wood.

[129:A] This particular copy is regarded as the finest ever sold at
auction; it is bound in blue morocco by Derome, and cost Mr. Wodhull 15
guineas in August, 1770.

[132:A] John Ratcliffe, who died in 1776, lived in East Lane,
Bermondsey, and followed the prosaic calling of a chandler. He collected
Caxtons and the works of other early English printers with great
diligence and judgment for nearly thirty years. Many of these appear to
have been brought to him as wastepaper, to be purchased at so much per
pound. An interesting account of this very remarkable man is given in
Nichols' 'Literary Anecdotes,' iii., 621, 622.

[133:A] The original or Caxton's price for this book was about 5s. or
6s. per copy.

[136:A] The title-page of the catalogue contained the following
whimsical motto from Ebulus:

     +Kai gar o taôs dia to spanion thaumazetai.+

     (The peacock is admired on account of its rarity.)

Hearne speaks of Richard Rawlinson as 'vir antiquis moribus ornatus,
perque eam viam euns, quæ ad immortalem gloriam ducit.'

[143:A] The first edition of this play, 1597, sold in 1864 for £341 5s.;
it is the only copy known.

[143:B] Thomas Jolley picked up a volume which contained a first edition
of both 'Venus and Adonis' and the 'Sonnets,' for less than 3s. 6d. in
Lancashire! The former alone realised £116 in 1844, and is now in the
Grenville collection, British Museum. The copy of the former in the
above list was purchased at Baron Bolland's sale in 1840 for £91; at
Bright's sale for £91 10s., when it became Daniel's. The 'Sonnets,' also
Daniel's copy, had belonged to Narcissus Luttrell, who gave 1s. for it.




[Illustration]

BOOKSTALLS AND BOOKSTALLING.


OF the numerous ways and means of acquiring books open to the
book-hunter in London, there is none more pleasant or popular than that
of BOOKSTALLING. To the man with small means, and to the man with no
means at all, the pastime is a very fascinating one. East, west, north,
and south, there is, at all times and in all seasons, plenty of good
hunting-ground for the sportsman, although the inveterate hunter will
encounter a surfeit of Barmecides' feasts. Nearly every book-hunter has
been more or less of a bookstaller, and the custom is more than
tinctured with the odour of respectability by the fact that Roxburghe's
famous Duke, Lord Macaulay the historian, and Mr. Gladstone the
omnivorous, have been inveterate grubbers among the bookstalls. Macaulay
was not very communicative to booksellers, and when any of them would
hold up a book, although at the other end of the shop, he could tell by
the cover, or by intuition, what it was all about, and would say 'No,'
or 'I have it already.' Leigh Hunt was a bookstaller, for he says:
'Nothing delights us more than to overhaul some dingy tome and read a
chapter gratuitously. Occasionally, when we have opened some very
attractive old book, we have stood reading for hours at the stall, lost
in a brown study and worldly forgetfulness, and should probably have
read on to the end of the last chapter, had not the vendor of published
wisdom offered, in a satirically polite way, to bring us out a chair.
"Take a chair, sir; you must be tired."' The first Lord Lytton had a
fancy for these plebeian book-marts; whilst Southey had a mania for them
almost: he could not pass one without 'just running his eye over for
_one_ minute, even if the coach which was to take him to see Coleridge
at Hampstead was within the time of starting.'

The extreme variety of the bookstall is its great attraction, and the
chances of netting a rare or interesting book lie, perhaps, not so much
in the variety of books displayed as in their general shabbiness. Ten
years ago an English journalist picked up a copy of the first edition of
Mrs. Glasse's 'Art of Cookery,' in the New Kent Road, for a few pence.
It is no longer a shabby folio, but, superbly bound, it was sold with
Mr. Sala's books, July 23, 1895, for £10. A not too respectable copy of
Charles Lamb's privately-printed volume, 'The Beauty and the Beast,' was
secured for a few pence, its market-value being something like £20. A
copy of Sir Walter Scott's 'Vision of Don Roderick,' 1816, first
edition, in the original boards, was purchased, by Mr. J. H. Slater, in
Farringdon Road, in January, 1895, for 2d.--not a great catch, perhaps,
but it is one of the rarest of Scott's works; and as the originals of
this prolific author are rapidly rising in the market, there is no
knowing what it may be worth in the immediate future.

Here is a curious illustration of the manner in which a 'find' is
literally picked up. A man who sells books from a barrow in the streets
was wheeling it on the way to open for the day, and passed close to a
bookseller's assistant who was on his way to work. As the man passed, a
small volume fell off into the road, which the assistant kindly picked
up, with the intention of replacing it on the barrow. Before doing so,
however, he looked at the volume. One glance was enough. 'Here, what do
you want for this?' he asked. The dealer, taking a casual glance at the
volume, said: 'Oh, thruppence, I suppose, will do.' The money was paid,
and the assistant departed with the prize, which was a rare volume by
Increase Mather, printed in 1698 at Boston, U.S.A., and worth from £8 to
£12. A copy of Fuller's first work, and the only volume of poetry
published by that quaint writer, the excessively rare 'David's Hainous
Sinne,' 1631, was bought a few years ago for eighteenpence, probably
worth half as many pounds.

The coincidences of the bookstall are sometimes very remarkable. Mr. G.
L. Gomme relates one which is well worth recording, and we give it in
his own words: 'My friend, Mr. James Britten, the well-known plant-lore
scholar, has been collecting for some years the set of twenty-four
volumes of that curious annual, _Time's Telescope_. He had two
duplicates for 1825 and 1826, and these he gave to me. One day last
January I was engaged to dine with him, and in the middle of the _same_
day I passed a second-hand bookshop, and picked out from the sixpenny
box a volume of _Time's Telescope_ for 1816. In the evening I showed my
treasure with great contentment to my friend, expecting congratulations.
But, to my surprise and discomfiture, a mysterious look passed over his
face, then followed a quick migration to his bookshelves, then a loud
hurrah, and an explanation that this very "find" of mine was the _one_
volume he wanted to complete his set, the one volume he had been in
search of for some time.' Another book-collector picked out of a
rubbish-heap on a country bookseller's floor a little old book of poetry
with the signature of 'A. Pope.' Subsequently he found a manuscript note
in a book on the shelves of a public library referring to this very
copy, which, the writer of the note stated, had been given him by the
poet Pope.

The late Cornelius Walford related an interesting incident, the 'only
one of any special significance which has occurred to me during
thirty-five years of industrious book-hunting': 'When living at Enfield,
I used generally to walk to the Temple by way of Finsbury, Moorgate,
Cheapside, and Fleet Street. Every bookshop on the way I was familiar
with. On one occasion I thought I would vary the route by way of Long
Lane and Smithfield (as, indeed, I had occasionally done before). I was
at the time sadly in want of a copy of "Weskett on Insurances," 1781, a
folio work of some 600 pages. I had searched and inquired for it for
years; no bookseller had ever seen it. I had visited every bookshop in
Dublin, in the hope of finding a copy of the pirated (octavo) edition
printed there; and but for having seen a copy in a public library,
should have come to the conclusion that the book never existed. Some
temporary sheds had been erected over the Metropolitan Railway in Long
Lane. One, devoted to a meagre stock of old books, _was opened that
morning_. The first book I saw on the rough shelves was Weskett,
original edition, price a few shillings. I need hardly say I carried it
away. . . . I have never seen or heard of another of the original
edition exposed or reported for sale.'

[Illustration: _Cornelius Walford, Book-collector._]

Mr. Shandy _père_ was a bookstaller also, and if Bruscambille's
'Prologue upon Long Noses,' even when obtainable 'almost for nothing,'
would fail to excite in every collector the enthusiasm experienced by
Mr. Shandy, we can at all events sympathize with him. '"There are not
three Bruscambilles in Christendom," said the stall-man, who, like many
stall-men of to-day, did not hesitate to make a leap in the dark,
"except what are chained up in the libraries of the curious." My father
flung down the money as quick as lightning, took Bruscambille into his
bosom, hied home from Piccadilly to Coleman Street with it, as he would
have hied home with a treasure, without taking his hand once off from
Bruscambille all the way.'

[Illustration: _The South Side of Holywell Street._]

We have already seen that there were bookstalls as well as bookshops in
and about the neighbourhood of Little Britain during the latter part of
the seventeenth century. There were bookstalls or booths also in St.
Paul's Churchyard long before this period; but books had scarcely become
old in the time of Shakespeare, so that doubtless the volumes which were
to be had within the shadow of the cathedral were new ones. Booksellers
gradually migrated from the heart of London to a more westerly
direction. The bookstall followed, not so much as a matter of course as
because there was no room for it; land became extremely valuable, and
narrow streets, which are also crowded, are not a congenial soil for the
book-barrow. The Strand and Holborn and Fleet Street districts, both
highways and byways, became a favourite spot for the book-barrow during
the last century, and remained such up to quite modern times--until,
indeed, the iconoclastic wave of improvements swept everything before
it. Holywell Street still remains intact.

[Illustration: _Exeter 'Change in 1826._]

One of the most famous bookstalling localities during the last century
was Exeter 'Change, in the Strand, which occupied a large area of the
roadway between the present Lyceum Theatre and Exeter Street, and has
long since given place to Burleigh Street. The place was built towards
the end of the seventeenth century, and the shops were at first occupied
by sempsters, milliners, hosiers, and so forth. The place appears to
have greatly degenerated, and soon included bookstalls among the
standings of miscellaneous dealers. Writing on January 31, 1802, Robert
Bloomfield observes: 'Last night, in passing through Exeter 'Change, I
stopt at a bookstall, and observed "The Farmer's Boy" laying there for
sale, and the new book too, marked with very large writing, Bloomfield's
"Rural Tales": a young man took it up, and I observed he read the whole
through, and perhaps little thought that the author stood at his elbow.'
This locality was also a famous one for 'pamphlet shops.' 'Sold at the
Pamphlet Shops of London and Westminster' is an imprint commonly seen on
title-pages up to the middle of the last century. In addition to shops
and stalls, book-auctions were also held here. The curious and valuable
library of Dr. Thomas Pellet, Fellow of the College of Physicians, and
of the Royal Society, was sold 'in the Great Room over Exeter 'Change,'
during January, 1744, beginning at 5 p.m. (see p. 105).

[Illustration: _A Barrow in Whitechapel._]

Early in the eighteenth century, the third Earl of Shaftesbury, in his
'Miscellaneous Reflections,' 1714, refers to notable philosophers and
divines 'who can be contented to make sport, and write in learned
Billingsgate, to divert the Coffeehouse, and entertain the assemblys at
Booksellers' shops, or the more airy Stalls of inferior book-retailers.'

Bookstalls or barrows have been for nearly a century a feature of the
East End of London, more particularly of Whitechapel Road and
Shoreditch. The numbers of barrows have increased, but the locality is
practically the same. Many useful libraries have been formed from off
these stalls, and many very good bargains secured. Excellent collections
may still be formed from them, but the chances of a noteworthy 'find'
are indeed small. The book-hunter who goes to either of these places
with the idea of bagging a whole bundle of rarities is likely to come
away disappointed; but if he is in a buying humour the chances are ten
to one in favour of his getting a good many useful books at very
moderate figures. We have heard of a man who picked up a complete set of
first editions of Mrs. Browning in Shoreditch, but no one ever seems to
have met that lucky individual; and as the story is retailed chiefly by
the owner of the barrow from which they were said to have been
rescued--the said owner apparently not in the least minding the
inevitable conclusion at which the listener will arrive--the story is
not repeated as authentic. One of the last things which has come out of
Shoreditch lately is a copy of the first edition of Gwillim's 'Display
of Heraldry' (1610), in excellent condition, and which was purchased for
a few pence. An East End book-hunter tells us that, among other rarities
which he has rescued from stalls and cellars in that district, are a
first folio Ben Jonson; a copy of the Froben Seneca (1515), with its
fine bordered title-page, by Urs Graf; an early edition of Montaigne,
with a curious frontispiece; the copy of the _editio princeps_ Statius
(1483), which was purchased by Mr. Quaritch at the Sunderland sale; one
or two Plantins, in spotless splendour; Henry Stephens' Herodotus, a
book as beautiful as it is now valueless, but of which a copy is kept in
a showcase at South Kensington, and others, all at merely nominal
prices.

Many first-class libraries were formed by these _frequentationes
orientales_. It is a great pity that Macaulay, for example, has not left
on record a few of the very remarkable incidents which came under his
observation during these pilgrimages. The late Mr. W. J. Thoms
contributed a few of his to the _Nineteenth Century_ thirteen years ago.
One of Mr. Thoms' most striking 'East End' book-hunting anecdotes
relates to a Defoe tract. When a collected edition of Defoe's works was
contemplated some forty years ago, it was determined that the various
pieces inserted in it should be reprinted from the editions of them
superintended by Defoe himself. 'There was one tract which the editor
had failed to find at the British Museum or any other public library,
and which he had sought in vain for in "The Row" or any bookseller's
within reach of ordinary West End mortals. Somebody suggested that he
should make a pilgrimage to Old Street, St. Luke's, and perhaps Brown
might have a copy. Old Brown, as he was familiarly called, had a great
knowledge of books and book-rarities, although perhaps he was more
widely known for the extensive stock of manuscript sermons which he kept
indexed according to texts, and which he was ready to lend or sell as
his customers desired. . . . The editor inquired of Brown whether he had
a copy of Defoe's tract. "No," said Brown; "I have not, and I don't know
where you are likely to find one. But if you do meet with one, you will
have to pay pretty handsomely for it." "I am prepared to pay a fair
price for it," said the would-be customer, and left the shop. Now, Old
Brown had a "sixpenny box" outside the door, and he had such a keen eye
to business that I believe, if there was a box in London which would
bear out Leigh Hunt's statement [that no one had ever found anything
worth having in the sixpenny box at a bookstall], it was that box in Old
Street. But as the customer left the shop his eye fell on the box, he
turned over the rubbish in it, and at last selected a volume. "I'll pay
you for this out of the box." "Thank you, sir," said Brown, taking the
proffered sixpence. "But, by-the-by, what is it?" "It is _a_ tract by
Defoe," was the answer, to Old Brown's chagrin. For it was the very work
of which the purchaser was in search.'

In the way of antiquity doubtless the New Cut--as what was once Lambeth
Marsh is now termed--comes next to the two East End localities above
mentioned as a bookstall locality. The place has certainly been a
book-emporium for at least half a century. Mr. G. A. Sala declares that
he has purchased for an old song many of his rarest books in this
congested and unsavoury locality where Robert Buchanan and his ill-fated
friend, David Gray, shared a bankrupt garret on their first coming up to
London from Scotland. The present writer has picked up some rare and
curious books in that locality during the past ten years, and others
have doubtless done the same. Not so very long ago a volume with the
autograph of Drayton was secured for one penny, certainly not an
extravagant price.

[Illustration: _A Book-barrow in Farringdon Road._]

For some years Farringdon Road has enjoyed the distinction of being the
best locality in London for bookstalling. Its stalls are far more
numerous, and the quality of the books here exposed for sale is of a
much higher class, than those which are to be met with in other places.
There are between thirty and forty bookstalls or barrows here, and the
place has what we may describe as a bibliopolic history, which goes back
for a period of twenty years. The first person to start in the
bookselling line was a coster of the name of Roberts, who died somewhat
suddenly either in December of 1894 or early in January of the present
year. Roberts appears to have been a fairly successful man at the trade,
and had a fairly good knowledge of cheap books. The _doyen_ of the
Farringdon Road bibliopoles is named Dabbs--a very intelligent man, who
started first in the hot-chestnut line. Mr. Dabbs has generally a fairly
good stock of books, which varies between one and two thousand volumes,
a selection of which are daily displayed on four or five barrows, and
varying from two a penny ('You must take two') up to higher-priced
volumes. Curiously enough, he finds that theological books pay the best,
and it is of this class that his stock chiefly consists. Just as
book-hunters have many 'finds' to gloat over, so perhaps booksellers
have to bewail the many rarities which they have let slip through their
fingers. It would be more than could be expected of human nature, as it
is at present constituted, to expect booksellers to make a clean or even
qualified confession in this respect. Our friend Dabbs, however, is not
of this hypersensitive type, and he relates, with a certain amount of
grim humour, that his greatest lost opportunity was the selling of a
book for 1s. 6d. which a few days afterwards was sold in Paris for £50.
He consoles himself with the reflection that at all events _he_ made a
fair profit out of this book. If we could all be as philosophical as
this intelligent book-barrow-keeper, doubtless the slings and arrows of
outrageous Fortune would impress fewer wrinkles on our brows, and help
us to think kindly of the friends who put us 'up' to good things in the
way of gold-mines and generously left us to pay the piper.

[Illustration: _A few Types in Farringdon Road._]

However picturesque may be the calling of the bookstall-keeper to the
person who experiences a fiendish delight in getting a 6d. book out of
him for 5-1/2d., the calling is on the whole a very hard one. Exposed
to all weathers, these men have a veritable struggle for existence.
Their actual profits rarely exceed 30s. or £2 weekly. They vary greatly,
of course, according to weather, and a wet Saturday makes a very
material difference to their takings. Many weeks throughout the year
these takings do not average more than 8s. or 10s. We have made
inquiries among most of the bookstall-keepers in the Metropolis, and the
above facts can be depended upon. When these men happen upon a rare
book, they nearly invariably sell it to one of the better-class
booksellers. By this means they make an immediate profit and effect a
ready sale. There is beyond this a numerous class of what may be
described as 'book-ghouls,' or men who make it a business to haunt the
cheap bookstalls and bag the better-class or more saleable books and
hawk them around to the shops, and so make a few shillings on which to
support a precarious existence, in which beer and tobacco are the sole
delights. We once met a man who did a roaring trade of this description,
chiefly with the British Museum. He took notes of every book that struck
him as being curious or out of the way, and those which he discovered to
be absent from the Museum he would at once purchase. He was great in the
matter of editions, such as Pope, Junius, Coleridge, and so forth. The
Museum is naturally lacking in hundreds of editions of English authors;
but as these editions, almost without exception, possess no literary
value, their presence (or absence) was not a matter of importance. For
some months the 'collector' referred to inundated the Museum with these
unimportant editions. Our friend discovered that the Museum authorities,
ignoring the prices which he placed on his wares, would only have them
at their own figures--which showed a curious similarity to those at
which the vendor had obtained them--and this, coupled with the fact that
they refused to purchase many of the items offered at any price, led him
to the conclusion that he was serving his country at too cheap a rate.
It is scarcely necessary to add that he is now following a vocation
which, if less agreeable, is certainly more profitable to himself.
Occasionally one of these professional bookstallers blossoms into a
shopkeeper in some court or alley off Holborn; but more generally they
are too far gone in drink and dilapidation to get out of the rut.

One of the most curious characters who ever owned a bookstall was Henry
Lemoine, the son of a French Huguenot. He was born in 1756, and for many
years kept a stall in Bishopsgate Churchyard. He wrote many books, and
did much hack-work for various publishers, chiefly in the way of
translations from the French. He gave up shopkeeping in 1795, and became
a pedestrian bookseller or colporteur of pamphlets. In 1807 he again set
up a small stand of books in Parliament Street, and died in April, 1812.
He might have achieved success, and become a respectable member of
society, but his great failing was an all-consuming thirst.

[Illustration: _Henry Lemoine, Author and Bookseller._]

Writing over forty years ago in 'London Labour and the London Poor,'
1851, Henry Mayhew remarked: 'There has been a change, and in some
respects a considerable change, in the character or class of books sold
at the street stalls, within the last forty or fifty years, as I have
ascertained from the most experienced men in the trade. Now sermons, or
rather the works of the old divines, are rarely seen at these stalls, or
if seen, rarely purchased. Black-letter editions are very unfrequent at
street bookstalls, and it is twenty times more difficult, I am assured,
for street-sellers to pick up anything really rare and curious, than it
was in the early part of the century. One reason assigned for this
change by an intelligent street-seller was, that black-letter or any
ancient works were almost all purchased by the second-hand booksellers,
who have shops and issue catalogues, as they have a prompt sale for them
whenever they pick them up at book-auctions or elsewhere.' As we have
already pointed out, the same rule which obtained forty years ago
applies with equal force to-day, and in the chief instances in which we
have met with books well known to be rare, on bookstalls, their
condition has been so bad as to render them valueless, except, perhaps,
for the purpose of helping to complete imperfect copies.

At one time the bookstall-keepers had fairly good opportunities of
making a haul of a few rare books--that was when they were called in to
clear out offices and old houses. As the world has grown wiser in
respect to books as well as other things, executors, legatees, and so
forth, have acquired unreasonable views as to the value of old books,
and everything in the shape of a volume is sent to the regular
book-auctioneers. When it is remembered that practically all the books
which now occur on the various bookstalls of the Metropolis are
purchased under the hammer at Hodgson's, the chances of obtaining
anything rare are reduced to a minimum. These books are the refuse of
the various bookshops, after, perhaps, having passed from one shop to
another for several years without finding a purchaser outside the trade.
At Hodgson's, of course, these books find their level, after repeated
appearances; they are here sold, not quite by the cartload, but
certainly in lots sufficiently large to fill a moderate sized
wheelbarrow. The tastes of the bookbuying public are so infinite that
there would seem to be a sale, at some time or another, for every
species of printed matter; but the habitual haunter of the bookstalls
meets with the same water-soaked dog-eared volumes month after month,
and year after year, so that he is forced to the conclusion that the
right purchaser has not yet come along. These volumes appeal to the
bookbuyer with a piteousness which is scarcely less than positively
human. In the words of George Peele, written over three centuries ago,
these books seem to say,

     'Buy, read and judge,
      The price do not grudge;
      It will give thee more pleasure
      Than twice as much treasure;'

but no one seems to take the hint. Samuel Foote, in 'The Author,' makes
Vamp say: 'Books are like women, Master Cape; to strike they must be
well dressed; fine feathers make fine birds: a good paper, an elegant
type, a handsome motto, and a catching title, has drove many a dull
treatise through three editions.' These adventitious aids may still
possess a potent influence in selling a new book even to-day, but they
have little effect on the sale of the books which gravitate towards the
book-barrow.

The bookstall-keeper, it is true, has no rent to pay, except for the
hire of his barrow, which amounts to one shilling per week each. Even
this small charge is a considerable item where a man hires two or three
barrows and does scarcely any trade. Then he has to pay someone to look
after his goods during his absence. Further than this, the barrow-man
has to pay cash down before he removes his purchase from the sale-room.
On the other hand he gives no credit. The bookseller who enjoys the
luxury of a shop, gets credit from the auctioneer, and gives credit to
his customers. He has to put as large a margin of profit as possible on
his books, and an average of sixpence each has to be added to the
original cost of every item catalogued. The bookstall-man is, naturally,
handicapped in many ways, and if he finds the sweepings of his more
aristocratic _confrères'_ shops a long time on his hands, he, at all
events, makes as large a profit with much fewer liabilities.

We have referred to Hodgson's as the centre from which nearly all the
bookstalls are supplied. Occasionally, however, the barrow-man buys at
Sotheby's, and frequently so at Puttick and Simpson's. Sometimes the
more adventurous spirits attend auctions in private houses in the
suburbs, and occasionally those held a few miles out of town. These
expeditions are more often than not 'arranged,' and usually resolve
themselves into 'knock-outs.' It is a by no means unknown contingency
for two or three men to purchase, against all comers, the entire lot of
books at figures which invariably put the auctioneer into an exceedingly
good humour; neither is it an unknown event for these men to decamp
without the books, and also without leaving their addresses or deposit!
Such tricks, however, are not the work of the tradesmen who have a
_locus standi_, but of the better class of book-jackals, who, failing to
get the books for next to nothing, outbid everyone else, and leave the
auctioneer to get out of the dilemma as he best can.

[Illustration: _The late Edmund Hodgson, Book-auctioneer._]

For many years the weekly cattle-market at Islington has been a happy
hunting-ground of the bookstall-keeper. Books are among the hundred and
one articles which are brought from every conceivable source, and many
very good things have doubtless been picked up here. But it is always
the early prowler who gets the rarities--the man who gets there at eight
or nine o'clock in the morning. There is very little but absolute
rubbish left for the post-prandial visitor. A few inveterate
book-hunters have journeyed thither at various times and in a spasmodic
manner, but the hope of anything worth having has usually turned out to
be a vain one: they have always been anticipated.

Between the more ambitious shop and the nondescript bookstall, there is
a class or species of bookseller who deserves a niche in this place. We
refer to men like Purcell, in Red Lion Passage, Red Lion Square,
Holborn, who are almost as much printsellers as booksellers. They make
one book by destroying many others. Grangerizing is the proper name of
this practice; but as the Rev. Mr. Granger has been productive of more
curses than a dozen John Bagfords--an evil genius of the same type--the
process is now termed extra-illustrating. However much one may denounce
the whole system, it is impossible, whatever a particular book-hunter's
idiosyncrasy may be, not to feel interested in some of the collections
which these enterprising and ruthless biblioclasts manage to get
together. Mr. Purcell is an adept at this game, of which, doubtless, Mr.
F. Harvey, of St. James's Street, is one of the most clever, as he is
certainly the most eminent of professors. Mr. Purcell's collection of
prints, engravings, press-cuttings, and so forth, cover an
extraordinarily wide field. In fifty cases out of a hundred, booksellers
who make grangerizing a speciality find it pays far better to break up
an illustrated book than to sell it intact. When they purchase a book,
it is obviously their own property, to preserve or destroy, as they find
most agreeable. Personally, we regard the system as in many ways a
pernicious one, but it is one upon which a vast amount of cant has been
wasted.

But bookshops and stalls are obviously not the only places at which
bargains in books are likely to be secured, as the following anecdote
would seem to prove: 'A writer and reader well versed in the works of
the minor English writers recently entered a newspaper-shop at the East
End and purchased a pennyworth of snuff. When he got home he found that
the titillating substance was wrapped in a leaf of Sir Thomas Elyot's
black-letter book, "The Castell of Helth." The next day the purchaser
went in hot haste to the shop and made a bid for the remainder of the
volume. "You are too late, sir," spoke the shopkeeper. "After you had
gone last night, a liter_airy_ gent as lives round the corner gave me
two bob for the book. There was only one leaf torn out, which you got.
The book was picked up at a stall for a penny by my son." The purchaser
of the pennyworth at once produced the leaf, with instructions for it to
be handed to his forestaller in the purchase of the volume, together
with his name and address; and next day he received a courteous note of
thanks from the "liter_airy_ gent" aforesaid.' Nothing is so uncertain
as one's luck in book-hunting, but, without entirely discrediting the
foregoing story, we can only say that it is an old friend with a new
face. We have heard the same thing before. Not so very long ago, a
certain bookseller thought he had at last got a prize; it was one of the
rarest Shakespeare quartos, and worth close on £100. He had purchased it
among a lot of other dirty pamphlets. He looked the matter up, and
everything seemed to point to the fact that his copy was genuine in
every respect--a most uncommon stroke of luck indeed. The precious
quarto was in due course sent to Puttick's, and the modest reserve of
£70 was placed upon it. The quarto was genuine in every respect, but it
was a _facsimile_!

It may be taken for granted that genuine Shakespeare quartos do not
occur on bookstalls, and even a rare Americana tract only occurs in the
wildest dreams of the book-hunter. Nevertheless, 'finds' of more or less
interest continue to be made by keen book-hunters. Dr. Garnett tells how
a tradesman at Oswestry had in his possession books to which he attached
no importance, but which, a lady informed him, must be very rare. They
were submitted to the authorities of the British Museum, who gave a
high price for them. One was Sir Anthony Sherley's 'Wits New Dyall,'
published in 1604, of which only one other copy is known to be in
existence. As a rule, offers of rare books come from booksellers, who do
not always say how they become possessed of them. Among the private
people who offer books to the Museum for sale are a large proportion who
think that a book must necessarily be rare because it is a hundred years
old or more. Before the great catalogue was made, finds were
occasionally made in the Museum itself, and even now a volume will
occasionally be found which has special interest and value on account of
its binding. In other cases a book will be found to be in a binding made
up of leaves of some rare work far more valuable than the book itself.

[Illustration]




[Illustration]

SOME BOOK-HUNTING LOCALITIES.


LITTLE BRITAIN AND MOORFIELDS.

THERE are few more attractive phases in the history of book-hunting in
London than that of localities. Up to nearly the end of the last
century, these localities were for the most part, and for close on 350
years, confined to within a narrow area. With the rapid expansion of
London north, east, south, and west, the 'trade' has not only expanded,
but its representatives have sprung up in every district, whilst many of
the older ones have forsaken the limits of the City, and pitched their
tents in Greater London. For centuries bookselling and publishing
flourished side by side in St. Paul's Churchyard, Fleet Street, and
their immediate neighbourhoods.

[Illustration: _St. Paul's Churchyard, 1606. From the Crace
Collection._]

Of all the old bookselling localities close to the heart of London, none
were more famous than Little Britain and Moorfields. Three years before
the Great Fire of London--in 1663--Sorbière, in his 'Journey to
England,' made the following observation: 'I am not to forget the vast
number of booksellers' shops I have observed in London: for besides
those who are set up here and there in the City, they have their
particular quarters, such as St. Paul's Churchyard and Little Britain,
where there is twice as many as in the Rue Saint Jacque in Paris, and
who have each of them two or three warehouses.' The bookselling zenith
of Little Britain was attained in the seventeenth century; it may almost
be said to have commenced with the reign of Charles I., and to have
begun a sort of retrogression with the Hanoverian succession. But there
were printers and booksellers here at the latter part of the sixteenth
century. From a newspaper published in this district in 1664, we learn
that no less than 464 pamphlets were published here during four years.
It was a sort of seventeenth-century combination of the Paternoster Row
and Fleet Street of the present day. It is the place where, according to
a widely circulated statement, first made in Richardson's 'Remarks on
Paradise Lost,' 1734, an Earl of Dorset accidentally discovered, when on
a book-hunt in 1667, a work hitherto unknown to him, entitled 'Paradise
Lost.' He is said to have bought a copy, and the bookseller begged him
to recommend it to his friends, as the copies lay on his hand like so
much wastepaper. The noble Earl showed his copy to Dryden, who is
reported to have exclaimed: 'This man cuts us all out, and the ancients
too.' Though this anecdote may be apocryphal, certain it is the poem is
in a way connected with the neighbourhood, inasmuch as Simmons' shop was
in Aldersgate Street. In addition to this fact, Richardson also tells us
that Milton lodged for some time in Little Britain with Millington, the
famous book-auctioneer, who had then quitted the rostrum and followed
the more peaceful vocation of a dealer in old books.

Roger North, in his 'Life of the Right Hon. Francis North,' has an
oft-quoted reference to Little Britain. From this interesting account we
learn that during the latter part of the seventeenth century it was a
plentiful and perpetual emporium of learned authors, and that men went
thither as to a market. The trade of the place was, in consequence, an
important one, the shops being large, and much resorted to by literary
personages, wits, men-about-town, and fashionable notabilities
generally. The booksellers then were men of intellect. But referring, by
way of contrast, to the place during the earlier half of the eighteenth
century, he laments that 'this emporium is vanished, and the trade
contracted into the hands of two or three persons, who, to make good
their monopoly, ransack, not only their neighbours of the trade that are
scattered about the town, but all over England, ay, and beyond sea, too,
and send abroad their circulators, and in this manner get into their
hands all that is valuable. The rest of the trade are content to take
their refuse, with which, and the fresh scum of the press, they furnish
one side of the shop, which serves for the sign of a bookseller, rather
than a real one; but instead of selling, deal as factors, and procure
what the country divines and gentry send for; of whom each hath his
book-factor, and, when wanting anything, writes to his bookseller and
pays his bill. And it is wretched to consider what pickpocket work, with
the help of the press, these demi-booksellers make. They crack their
brains to find out selling subjects, and keep hirelings in garrets, at
hard meat, to write and correct by the groat; and so puff up an octavo
to a sufficient thickness; and there is six shillings current for an
hour and half's reading, and perhaps never to be read or looked upon
after. One that would go higher, must take his fortune at blank walls,
and corners of streets, or repair to the sign of Bateman, King, and one
or two more, where are best choice, and better pennyworths. I might
touch other abuses, as bad paper, incorrect printing, and false
advertising; and all of which and worse are to be expected, if a careful
author is not at the heels of them.'

We get an interesting glimpse of a meeting of two book-lovers in this
locality from Izaak Walton. In his 'Life of Bishop Sanderson,' Walton
writes that about the time Sanderson was printing this excellent preface
('before his last twenty Sermons,' 1655), 'I met him accidentally in
London, in sad-coloured clothes, and, God knows, far from costly. The
place of our meeting was near to Little Britain, where he had been to
buy a book, which he then had in his hand.'

The house of Bateman is worthy of an important chapter in the
bookselling annals of Little Britain, and the best-known member
(Christopher) of the family is described in the usual sugared style of
John Dunton: 'There are few booksellers in England (if any) that
understand books better than Mr. Bateman, nor does his diligence and
industry come short of his knowledge. He is a man of great reputation
and honesty.' Nichols states that Bateman would allow no person to look
into books in his shop, and when asked a reason for this extraordinary
rule, he answered: 'I suppose you may be a physician or an author, and
want some recipe or quotation; and, if you buy it, I will engage it to
be perfect before you leave me, but not after, as I have suffered by
leaves being torn out, and the books returned, to my very great loss and
prejudice.' Bateman's shop was a favourite resort of Swift, who several
times speaks of it in his 'Journal to Stella:' 'I went to Bateman's, the
bookseller, and laid out eight and forty shillings for books. I bought
three little volumes of Lucian, in French, for our Stella, and so, and
so' (January 6, 1710-11); and again: 'I was at Bateman's, to see a fine
old library he has bought, and my fingers itched as yours would do at a
china-shop' (July 9, 1711).

One of the most frequent visitors to Bateman's shop was Thomas Britton,
'the small-coal man,' who died in September, 1714. His knowledge of
books, of music and chemistry was certainly extraordinary, having regard
to his ostensible occupation. His collection of manuscripts and printed
music and musical instruments was very large. Lord Somers gave £500 for
his collection of pamphlets, and Sir Hans Sloane was also a purchaser of
many curious articles. He was a very well-known character, and 'was so
much distinguished that, when passing through the streets in his blue
linen frock, and with his sack of small coal on his back, he was
frequently accosted with the following expression: "There goes the
famous small-coal man, who is a lover of learning, a performer in music,
and a companion for gentlemen."' Saturday, when Parliament was not
sitting during the winter, was the market day with the booksellers of
Little Britain; and in the earlier part of the last century, the
frequenters of this locality included such worthies as the Duke of
Devonshire, Edward, Earl of Oxford, and the Earls of Pembroke,
Sunderland, and Winchelsea. After the 'hunt' they often adjourned to the
Mourning Bush in Aldersgate, where they dined and spent the remainder of
the day.

[Illustration: _Thomas Britton, 'the small-coal man,' Collector of
Musical Instruments and MSS._]

Another famous Little Britain bookseller was Robert Scott whose sister
was the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North's 'grandmother's woman.' Scott was
a man of 'good parts,' and was in his time, says Roger North, the
'greatest librarian in Europe; for besides his stock in England, he had
warehouses at Frankfort, Paris, and other places, and dealt by factors.'
When an old man, Scott 'contracted with one Mills, of St. Paul's
Churchyard, near £10,000 deep, and articled not to open his shop any
more. But Mills, with his auctioneering, atlases, and projects, failed,
whereby poor Scott lost above half his means. . . . He was not only an
expert bookseller, but a very conscientious, good man, and when he threw
up his trade, Europe had no small loss of him.'

The most celebrated family of booksellers, perhaps, who lived in Little
Britain, was that of Ballard, or Bullard, as the original name appears
by the auction catalogues. The family were connected with the trade for
over a century, and were noted, says Nichols, 'for the soundness of
their principles in Church and State.' One Henry Ballard lived at the
sign of the Bear without Temple Bar, over against St. Clement's Church,
in 1597, but whether he was an ancestor of the family in question is not
certain. Thomas Ballard, the founder of the bookselling branch, was
described by Dunton, in 1705, as 'a young bookseller in Little Britain,
but grown man in body now, but more in mind:

     'His looks are in his mother's beauty drest,
      And all the Father has inform'd the rest.'

Samuel Ballard, for many years Deputy of the Ward of Aldersgate Within,
died August 27, 1761, and his only son, Edward, January 2, 1796, aged
eighty-eight, in the same house in which he was born, having outlived
his mental faculties. He was the last of the profession in Little
Britain.

Among the scores of Little Britain men who combined publishing with
second-hand bookselling, one of the more interesting is William Newton,
who resided there during the earlier years of the last century. In 1712
he published Quincy's 'Medicina Statica,' at the end of which is this
curious 'Advertisement' (minus the superfluity of capitals): 'Those
persons who have any Librarys (_sic_) or small parcels of old books to
dispose of, either in town or countrey, may have ready money for them of
Will. Newton, Bookseller in Little Britain, London. Also all gentlemen,
and schoolmasters, may be furnished with all sorts of classics, in usum
Delphi, Variorum, etc. Likewise, he will exchange with any person, for
any books they have read and done with.'

It was from the Dolphin, in Little Britain, that Samuel Buckley first
issued the _Spectator_, March 1, 1711, _et seq._ Tom Rawlinson resided
here for some years, as did another and different kind of celebrity,
Benjamin Franklin, who worked at Palmer's famous printing-house in
Bartholomew Close. 'While I lodged in Little Britain,' says Franklin, in
his 'Autobiography,' 'I made an acquaintance with one Wilcox, a
bookseller, whose shop was at the next door. He had an immense
collection of second-hand books. Circulating libraries were not then in
use; but we agreed that, on certain reasonable terms, which I have now
forgotten, I might take, read, and return any of the books. This I
esteemed a great advantage, and made as much use of as I could.'

[Illustration: _Duke Street, Little Britain, formerly called Duck
Lane._]

But by Franklin's time the book trade of Little Britain had declined
beyond any hope of recovery. In 1756 Maitland describes the place as
'very ruinous'; the part from 'the Pump to Duck Lane is well built, and
though much inhabited formerly by booksellers, who dealt chiefly in old
books, it is now much deserted and decayed.' A few years before Nichols
published his 'Literary Anecdotes,' two booksellers used to sport their
rubric posts close to each other here in Little Britain, and these
rubric posts[176:A] were once as much the type of a bookseller's shop as
the pole is of a barber's.

Nearly all the numerous lanes and alleys immediately contiguous to
Little Britain were more or less inhabited by second-hand booksellers.
The most important in every respect of these was Duck Lane, subsequently
rechristened Duke Street, and in 1885 as a part and parcel of Little
Britain. It is the street which leads from West Smithfield to one end of
Little Britain, and the change was a very foolish one. It was to this
street that Swift conjectured that booksellers might send inquiries for
his works.

     'Some county squire to Lintot goes,
      Inquires for Swift in verse and prose.
      Says Lintot, "I have heard the name,
      He died a year ago." "The same."
      He searches all the shops in vain:
      "Sir, you may find them in Duck Lane."'

And Garth tells how the learned Dr. Edward Tyson filled his library from
the Duck Lane shops:

     'Abandoned authors here a refuge meet,
      And from the world to dust and worms retreat
      Here dregs and sediments and authors reign,
      Refuse of fairs and gleanings of Duck Lane.'

Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt has noted the fact that a copy of Zach. Ursinus'
'Summe of Christian Religion,' translated by H. Parry (1617), contains
on the first leaf this note: 'Mary Rous her Booke, bought in Duck Lane
bey Smithfelde, this year, 1644.'

Not very far from Little Britain is the Barbican, which at the earlier
part of the century contained several bookshops, but has since
degenerated into forbidding warehouses. Charles Lamb, under date March
25, 1829, writes: 'I have just come from town, where I have been to get
my bit of quarterly pension, and have brought home from stalls in
Barbican the old "Pilgrim's Progress," with the prints--Vanity Fair,
etc.--now scarce. Four shillings; cheap. And also one of whom I have oft
heard and had dreams, but never saw in the flesh--that is in
sheepskin--"The Whole Theologic Works of Thomas Aquinas." My arms ached
with lugging it a mile to the stage, but the burden was a pleasure, such
as old Anchises was to the shoulders of Æneas, or the lady to the lover
in the old romance, who, having to carry her to the top of a high
mountain (the price of obtaining her), clambered with her to the top and
fell dead with fatigue.'

[Illustration: _Charles Lamb, after D. Maclise._]

The district to which the name of Moorfields was once applied has no
great historic interest. It remained moorfields until it was first
drained in 1527. In the reign of James I. it was first laid out into
walks, and during the time of Charles II. some portions of it were built
upon. It soon became famous for its musters and pleasant walks, its
laundresses and bleachers, its cudgel-players and popular amusements,
its bookstalls and ballad-sellers. Writing at the beginning of the last
century, that pungent critic of the world in general, Tom Brown,
observes: 'Well, this thing called prosperity makes a man strangely
insolent and forgetful. How contemptibly a cutler looks at a poor
grinder of knives; a physician in his coach at a farrier a-foot; and a
well-grown Paul's Churchyard bookseller upon one of the trade that sells
second-hand books under the trees in Moorfields!' In Thoresby's 'Diary'
we have an entry under the year 1709 of a very rare edition of the New
Testament in English, 1536, having been purchased in Moorfields.

[Illustration: _Old Houses in Moorfields._]

By the middle of the last century Moorfields became an assemblage of
small shops, particularly booksellers', and remained such until, in
1790, the handsome square of Finsbury arose on its site. That some of
these booksellers of Moorfields had considerable stocks is seen by the
fact that that of John King, of this place, occupied ten days in the
dispersal at Samuel Baker's in 1760. Perhaps one of the most famous of
the Moorfields booksellers was Thomas King, who published priced
catalogues of books from 1780 to 1796, and who deserted Moorfields at
about the latter date, to take premises in King Street, Covent Garden,
as a book-auctioneer. Horace Walpole, referring to James West's sale in
1773, says: 'Mr. West's books are selling outrageously. His family will
make a fortune by what he collected from stalls and Moorfields.' This
sale, which occupied twenty-four days, included, as we have said on a
previous page, books by Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and others, and also
works on Old English literature, voyages and travels, not a few of which
were undoubtedly picked up in Moorfields. The Rev. John Brand, secretary
of the Society of Antiquaries, who died in 1806, visited almost daily
the bookstalls between Piccadilly and Mile End, and may be regarded as
another Moorfields book-hunter; he generally returned from these
excursions with his deep and wide pockets well laden. His books were
chiefly collected in this way, and for comparatively small sums. Brand
cared little for the condition of his books, many of which were
imperfect, the defects being supplied in neatly-written MS. (See p.
190.) John Keats, the poet, was born in Moorfields, and Tom Dibdin was
apprenticed to an upholsterer in this district.


FINSBURY.

[Illustration: _Interior of Lackington's Shop._]

When Moorfields became improved into Finsbury Circus, the bookselling
element was by no means extinguished. James Lackington (1746 to 1816),
who had established himself as a bookseller in Chiswell Street, was
issuing catalogues from that address from 1779 to 1793. He first started
selling books on Midsummer Day, 1774, in Featherstone Street, St.
Luke's. It was from Chiswell Street that Lackington dated those rambling
letters which he styles 'Memoirs of the Forty-five First Years' of his
life. In twelve years he had progressed so rapidly, from the sack of old
rubbish for which he paid a guinea and with which he began business as a
bookseller, that a move to more commodious premises became necessary. In
1794 he transferred his stock to one of the corners of Finsbury
Square--which had been then built about five years--and started his
'Temple of the Muses.' The original building was burnt down some years
ago, but the late Charles Knight has left on record an interesting
sketch of the place as it struck him in 1801: 'Over the principal
entrance is inscribed, "Cheapest Booksellers in the World." It is the
famous shop of Lackington, Allen and Co., "where above half a million of
volumes are constantly on sale." We enter the vast area, whose
dimensions are to be measured by the assertion that a coach and six
might be driven round it. In the centre is an enormous circular counter,
within which stand the dispensers of knowledge, ready to wait upon the
county clergyman, in his wig and shovel hat; upon the fine ladies, in
feathers and trains; or upon the bookseller's collector, with his dirty
bag. If there is any chaffering about the cost of a work, the shopman
points to the following inscription: "The lowest price is marked on
every book, and no abatement made on any article." We ascend a broad
staircase, which leads to "The Lounging Rooms" and to the first of a
series of circular galleries, lighted from the lantern of the dome,
which also lights the ground-floor. Hundreds, even thousands, of volumes
are displayed on the shelves running round their walls. As we mount
higher and higher, we find commoner books in shabbier bindings; but
there is still the same order preserved, each book being numbered
according to a printed catalogue. . . . The formation of such an
establishment as this assumes a remarkable power of organization, as
well as a large command of capital.'

[Illustration: _Jones and Co. (successors to Lackington)._]

Six years after he had started, Lackington, who had been joined by his
friend, John Denis--a man of some capital--published his first catalogue
(1779), the title of the firm being Lackington and Co., and the list
enumerating some 12,000 volumes. Denis appears to have been a genuine
book-collector and a man of some taste, with the very natural result
that they soon parted company. Lackington was as vain and officious a
charlatan as ever stepped in shoe-leather--a trade to which he had been
brought up, by the way--but that he had organizing abilities of a very
uncommon order there can be no question. He found the catalogue business
a great success, and in due course issued one of 820 pages, with
entries of nearly 30,000 volumes and sets of books, all classified under
subjects as well as sizes. For thirteen years (after 1763) Lackington
did all his own cataloguing. In 1798 the Temple of the Muses was made
over to George Lackington, Allen and Co. The former was a third cousin
of the founder of the firm, and is described by John Nichols as 'well
educated and gentlemanly.'

[Illustration: _Lackington's Halfpenny._]

When he retired from the business, Lackington enjoyed himself to the top
of his bent, travelling all over the kingdom in his state coach and
scribbling. His 'Confessions' appeared in 1804, and form a sequel to his
'Memoirs,' already mentioned. He died on November 22, 1815, and is
buried at Budleigh Salterton, Devon. As a bookseller, he certainly was a
success--perhaps, indeed, one of the most successful, all things
considered, that ever lived in London. He is a hero in pretty much the
same sense as James Boswell. He had, as a matter of course, his
detractors. His contemporary booksellers loved him not, for his methods
of quick sales and small profits were things unheard of until he
appeared on the scene. Peter Pindar's 'Ode to the Hero of Finsbury
Square, 1795,' is a choice specimen of this witty writer. It begins:

     'Oh! thou whose mind, unfetter'd, undisguised,
        Soars like the lark into the empty air;
      Whose arch exploits by subtlety devised,
        Have stamped renown on Finsbury's New Square,
      Great "hero" list! Whilst the sly muse repeats
      Thy nuptial ode, thy prowess great _in sheets_.'

Accompanying this ode was a woodcut, which represents Lackington
mounting his gorgeous carriage upon steps formed by Tillotson's
'Sermons,' a Common Prayer, and a Bible; from one of his pockets there
protrudes a packet of papers, labelled 'Puffs and lies for my book,' and
from the other 'My own memoirs.'

The 'Co.' of George Lackington, Allen and Co. was a Mr. Hughes. At the
next shuffling of cards the firm consisted of Lackington, A. Kirkman,
Mavor--a son of Dr. Mavor, of Woodstock--and Jones. In 1822 the firm
consisted of Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, and Lepard, and
subsequently of Harding and Lepard (who had absorbed the important
business of Triphook, the Cunning Bookseller of Beloe, and it was this
trio who published the second edition of Dibdin's 'Library Companion'),
by whom the business was transferred to Pall Mall East. George
Lackington died in March, 1844, aged seventy-six. In the _Bookseller_ of
December 16, 1886, there is an interesting memoir of Kames James Ford,
'the last of the Lackingtonians,' who died at Crouch Hill five days
previously, aged ninety-four.


CENTRAL AND EAST LONDON.

[Illustration: _The Poultry in 1550._]

Cheapside had never much attraction to the book-collector, but the
Poultry (which is in reality a continuation of the Cheapside
thoroughfare) was for two and a half centuries a bookselling locality.
In 1569, for example, John Alde was living at 'the long shop adjoining
to St. Mildred's Church in the Poultry.' From the middle to the end of
the seventeenth century the locality had become quite famous for its
bookshops. Nat Ponder, who 'did time' for publishing a seditious
pamphlet, was Bunyan's publisher. John Dunton's shop was at the sign of
the Black Raven. No. 22 was the residence of the brothers Charles and
Edward Dilly, and it was here, at a dinner, that Dr. Johnson's
prejudices against Wilkes were entirely broken down by the latter's
brilliant conversation. The Dillys were great entertainers, and all the
more notable literary people of the period were to be met at their
house. They amassed a very large fortune. Edward died in 1807, having
relinquished the business some years previously to Joseph Mawman, who
died in 1827. Mawman, it may be mentioned, wrote an 'Excursion to the
Highlands of Scotland,' 1805, which the _Edinburgh_ furiously assailed:
'This is past all enduring. Here is a tour, _travelled_, _written_,
_published_, _sold_, and, for anything we know, _reviewed_ by one and
the same individual! We cannot submit patiently to this monstrous
monopoly.' No. 31 was the shop of Vernor and Hood, booksellers. The
latter was father of the facetious Tom Hood, who was born here in 1798.
Spon, of 15, Queen Street, Cheapside, was issuing, half a century ago,
his 'City of London Old Book Circulars,' which often contained excellent
books at very moderate prices.

[Illustration: _The Old Mansion House, Cheapside._]

The district more or less immediately contiguous to the Bank of England
was for a long period a favourite bookselling locality, but heavy rents
and crowded thoroughfares have completely killed the trade in the heart
of commercial London. Early in the seventeenth century, Pope's Head
Alley, a turning out of Cornhill, contained a number of booksellers' and
publishers' shops. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, Thomas
Guy, with a capital of about £200, started selling books at 'the little
corner house of Lombard Street and Cornhill'; but his wealth was not
derived from this source. It is interesting to note, however, that this
little corner shop existed so recently as 1833 or 1834. Alexander
Cruden, of 'Concordance' fame, settled in London in 1732, and opened a
bookstall under the Royal Exchange, and it was whilst here that he
compiled the 'Concordance' which ruined him in business and deranged his
mind. William Collins, whose catalogues for many years 'furnished
several curiosities to the literary collectors,' started selling books
in Pope's Head Alley, in or about 1778, but was burnt out in the
following year, when he removed to Exchange Alley, where he remained
until the last decade of the last century. John Sewell, who died in 1802
(aged sixty-eight), was one of the last to sport the rubric posts, and
his shop in Cornhill was a highly popular resort with book-buyers; he
was succeeded by another original character in the person of James
Asperne. J. and A. Arch were in Cornhill contemporaneously with Asperne,
and it was to these kindly Quakers that Thomas Tegg turned, and not in
vain, after being summarily dismissed from Lane's, in Leadenhall Street,
and with whom he remained for some years. It was not until some time
after he had started on his own account that Tegg commenced his nightly
book-auctions at 111, Cheapside, an innovation which resulted in Tegg
finding himself a fairly rich man. His next move was to the old Mansion
House, once the residence of the Lord Mayor, and here he met with an
increased prosperity and popularity. He was elected a Common Councillor
of the ward of Cheap, and took a country house at Norwood. Up to the
close of 1840, Tegg had issued 4,000 works on his own account (chiefly
'remainders'), and not 'more than twenty were failures.' The more
noteworthy second-hand booksellers of this neighbourhood half a century
ago were Charles Davis, whose shop was at 48, Coleman Street, and T.
Bennett, of 4, Copthall Buildings, at the back of the Bank, each of whom
published catalogues. A quarter of a century ago the last-named address
was still in possession of second-hand booksellers--S. and T. Gilbert,
and subsequently of Gilbert and Field. One of the oldest bookselling
firms in the City is that of Sandell and Smith, of 136, City Road, which
dates back to 1830. It was whilst exploring in some of the upper rooms
of this shop that a well-known first-edition collector, Mr. Elliot
Stock, came upon an incomparable array of the class of book for which he
had an especial weakness. He obtained nearly a sackload at an average of
tenpence or a shilling each, and as many of these are now not only very
rare, but in great demand at fancy prices, it is scarcely necessary to
say that the investment was a peculiarly good one. The 'haul' included
works by Byron, Bernard Barton, Browning, Barry Cornwall, Lytton,
Cowper, Dryden, Hogg, Moore, Rogers, Scott, Wordsworth, and a lot of
eighteenth-century writers. Half a century ago Edwards' 'Cheap Random
Catalogues' were being issued from 76, Bunhill Row.

[Illustration: _Gilbert and Field's Shop in Copthall Court._]

[Illustration: _E. George's (late Gladding's) Shop, Whitechapel Road._]

So far as the East End of London is concerned, there is not, perhaps,
very much to say. The second-hand bookselling trade for the past
half-century has been confined in a large measure to three firms--R.
Gladding, an octogenarian, who dealt almost exclusively in theological
books, whose shop was at 76, Whitechapel Road, and who retired at the
end of 1893; E. George and Sons, who have been for many years
established at 231, Whitechapel Road, and have lately acquired
Gladding's shop; and Joseph Smith, 2, Oxford Street, Whitechapel. The
two last-named firms are, in their respective ways, of more than usual
interest. Mr. E. George, whose father, William George, was also a
bookseller, started in business on his own account between thirty and
forty years ago, his stock-in-trade consisting of four shillings' worth
of miscellaneous volumes, which he exposed for sale on a barrow close
to the old Whitechapel workhouse, which occupied the ground on which one
of Mr. George's shops now stands. Mr. George has built up one of the
most remarkable and extensive business connections in existence. His
stock may be roughly calculated at about 700,000 or 800,000 volumes or
parts, two large houses and warehouses being literally crammed full from
top to bottom. There is scarcely any periodical or transactions of any
learned society which they are unable to complete, and in many
instances--_Punch_, for example--they have at least a dozen complete
sets, besides an infinity of odd numbers and parts. It is scarcely
necessary to point out that Messrs. George's business has very little to
do with the locality in which their shops are situated. They are the
wholesale firm of the trade, and the larger part of their business is
done in the United States and among the provincial booksellers of Great
Britain, ten huge cases and a complete set of Hansard being on the eve
of exportation to America at the time of our visit. It is a curious
fact, and one well worth mentioning, that until last year (1894) this
firm never issued a catalogue. It is also interesting to point out that
their shop at 76, Whitechapel Road is one of the most admirably arranged
bookstores in the country. It was specially constructed, and is not
unlike a miniature British Museum Reading-room; there are two galleries,
one above the other. The second East End worthy has a literary as well
as a bibliopolic interest. Joseph Smith will be better remembered by
posterity as the compiler of a 'Catalogue of Friends' Books,' and of the
'Bibliotheca Anti-Quakerana,' than as a bookseller. He was twenty years
compiling the former, and is perhaps one of the most striking
illustrations of the wisdom of the theory that the bookseller who wishes
to be a success should never read! Joseph Smith is of the Society of
Friends, and among his schoolfellows were John Bright and W. E. Forster.

Second-hand bookselling in the East End has declined during the past
quarter of a century from several causes, the chief and most important
being the almost complete withdrawal of moderately well-to-do people
from the locality. The neighbourhood has become so exclusively inhabited
by the poorest of the poor, and by the desolate immigrants from all
countries, that the higher phases of bookselling have little chance of
flourishing. Mr. E. George informs us that fifteen or twenty years ago
he frequently sold in one day books to the value of £15 to genuine
residents of the East End, but that he now does not sell fifteen
shillings' worth. So far as local customers are concerned, he might just
as well have nothing more elaborate than a warehouse.

Many interesting bookish events have, nevertheless, transpired in what
is now the slummiest district of London, and if the best of these
anecdotes were collected they would fill quite a big volume. They are
very varied in character, and some of the stories have very different
morals. Here is one related concerning the Rev. Mr. Brand, to whom we
have already referred. He was a clergyman of that district, and, it is
feared, sometimes neglected his religious duties for the more engrossing
charms of the chase. One Friday afternoon he was roaming in the
neighbourhood of his church, when his eye fell on the shop of a Jew
bookseller which he had not before noticed, and was astonished to see
there a number of black-letter volumes exposed for sale. But the sun was
rapidly going down, and the Jew, loath to be stoned by his neighbours
for breaking the Sabbath, was hastily interposing the shutters between
the eyes of the clergyman and the coveted books. 'Let me look at them
inside,' said the Rev. Mr. Brand; 'I will not keep you long.'
'Impossible,' replied the Jew. 'Sabbath will begin in five minutes, and
I absolutely cannot let myself be drawn into such a breach of Divine
Law. But if you choose to come early on Sunday morning you may see them
at your leisure.' The reverend gentleman accordingly turned up at eight
a.m. on Sunday, intending to remain there till church-time, he having to
do duty that day. He had provided himself with the overcoat which he
wore on his book-hunting expeditions, and which had pockets large enough
to swallow a good-sized folio. The literary treasures of the son of
Israel were much more numerous than the Gentile expected. At this time
there was not such a rush for Caxtons as we have witnessed since the
Roxburghe sale. Mr. Brand found one of these precious relics in a very
bad condition, although not past recovery, paid a trifling price for it,
and pocketed it. Then he successively examined some rare productions of
the presses of Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, and so forth. The clergyman's
purchases soon began to assume considerable proportions. Archimedes was
not more fully absorbed in his geometrical problems when the Roman
soldier killed him, than the East End clergyman in his careful
collations. He was aroused, however, from his reveries by the Jewess
calling out: 'Mike, dinner is ready.' 'Dinner!' exclaimed the parson.
'At what time do you dine?' 'At one o'clock,' she replied. He looked at
his watch. It was too true. He hastened home. In the meantime, the
beadle had been to his house, and finding he had left it in his usual
health, it was feared some accident had happened. The congregation then
dispersed, much concerned at the absence of the worthy pastor, who,
however, atoned in the evening, by unwonted eloquence, for his
unpremeditated prank of the morning.


HOLBORN AND NEIGHBOURHOOD.

As a second-hand bookselling locality, Holborn is one of the oldest of
those in which the trade is still carried on vigorously. As a
bookselling locality it has a record of close on three centuries and a
half. As early as 1558, a publisher was issuing cheap books in
connection with John Tisdale, at the Saracen's Head, in Holborn, near to
the Conduit, and in one of these booklets we are enjoined to

     'Remember, man! both night and day,
      Thou needs must die, there is no Nay.'

Probably the earliest, and certainly one of the earliest, books
published in Holborn was the 'Vision of Piers Plowman,' 'now fyrst
imprinted by Robert Crowley, dwellyng in Ely-rents in Holburne,' in
1550, which contains a very quaint address from the printer. In and
about the year 1584, Roger Warde, a very prolific publisher, was
dwelling near 'Holburne Conduit, at the sign of the "Talbot,"' and a
still more noteworthy individual, Richard Jones, lived hard by, at the
sign of the Rose and Crown.

Early in the seventeenth century, several members of the fraternity had
established themselves in and around Gray's Inn Gate, then termed, more
appropriately, Lane. Henrie Tomes published 'The Commendation of Cocks
and Cock-fighting' (1607), which, no doubt, the 'young bloods' of the
period perused much more diligently than more instructive and edifying
books with which Mr. Tomes also could have supplied them.

Its most famous bibliopolic resident, however, is Thomas Osborne, or Tom
Osborne, as he was called in the trade and by posterity. Tom Osborne's
fame began and ended with himself. Nobody knew whence he came, and
probably nobody cared. His catalogues cover a period of thirty
years--1738-1768--and include some very remarkable libraries of many
famous men. In stature he is described as short and thick, so that Dr.
Johnson's famous summary method of knocking him down[192:A] was not
perhaps so difficult a feat as is generally supposed. To his
inferiors--including, as he apparently but ruefully thought, Dr.
Johnson--he generally spoke in an authoritative and insolent manner. As
ignorant as Lackington, he was considerably less aware of the fact.
Osborne's shop, like that of Jacob Tonson[192:B] at the end of the
seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, was at the Gray's
Inn Road gate of, or entrance to, Gray's Inn. His greatest _coup_ was
the purchase of the Harleian Collection of books--the manuscripts were
bought by the British Museum for £10,000--for £13,000, in 1743. It is
said on good authority that the Earl of Oxford gave £18,000 for the
binding of only a part of them. In 1743-44, the extent of this
extraordinary collection was indicated by the 'Catalogus Bibliotheca
Harleianæ,' in four volumes. The first two, in Latin, were compiled by
Dr. Johnson at a daily wage, and the third and fourth (which are a
repetition of the first two), in English, are by Oldys. A charge of 5s.
was made for the first two volumes, which caused a good deal of
grumbling among the trade, and was resented 'as an avaricious
innovation,' but Osborne replied that the volumes could be either
returned in exchange for books or for the original purchase-money. He
was also charged with rating his books at too high a price, but a glance
through the catalogue will prove this to be an unjust accusation. The
copy of the Aldine Plato, 1513, on vellum, for which Lord Oxford gave
100 guineas, is priced by Osborne at £21. The sale of the books appears
to have been extremely slow, and Johnson assured Boswell that 'there was
not much gained by the bargain.' Nichols' 'Literary Anecdotes' (iii.
649-654) gives a list of the libraries which Osborne absorbed into his
stock at different times, but few of these are anything more than names
at the present day. Osborne is satirized in the 'Dunciad,' but,
according to Johnson, was so dull that he could not feel the poet's
gross satire. Sir John Hawkins states that Osborne used to boast that he
was worth £40,000, and doubtless this was true. His

              'Bushy bob, well powder'd every day,
     Bloom'd whiter than a hawthorn hedge in May,'

was one of his acquired peculiarities. Nichols tells us that the
expression 'rum books' arose from Osborne's sending unsaleable volumes
to Jamaica in exchange for rum.

But whilst Tom Osborne was _the_ bookseller of Holborn, there were many
others well established here during the last century, and whose names
have been handed down to us by the catalogues which they published.
William Cater, for instance, was issuing catalogues from Holborn in
1767, when he sold the libraries of Lord Willoughby, president of the
Society of Antiquaries, and in 1774 of Cudworth Bruck, another
antiquary. Cater was succeeded in 1786 by John Deighton, of Cambridge.
In the person of Henry Dell we get a literary bookseller, who had
established himself first in Tower Street, and in or about 1765 in
Holborn, where, Nichols tells us, he died very poor. He wrote 'The
Booksellers, a Poem,' 1766, which has been pronounced 'a wretched,
rhyming list of booksellers in London, and Westminster, with silly
commendations of some and stupid abuse of others.' Other Holborn
booksellers were: William Fox, 1773-1777; John Hayes, who died November
12, 1811, aged seventy-four, and 'whose abilities were of no ordinary
class, and his erudition very considerable'; John Anderson, of Holborn
Hill, 1787-1792, who sold the library of the Hon. John Scott, of Gray's
Inn; Francis Noble, who, besides being a bookseller, kept for many years
an extensive circulating library in Holborn, but who, in consequence of
his daughter's obtaining a share in the first £30,000 prize in the
lottery, retired from business, and died at an advanced age in June,
1792; Joseph White, 1779-1791; and William Flexney, who died January 7,
1808, aged seventy-seven, and who was the original publisher of
Churchill's 'Poems,' and is thus immortalized by that versatile 'poet':

     'Let those who energy of diction prize,
      For Billingsgate, quit Flexney, and be wise.'

Percival Stockdale, in his 'Memoirs,' speaks highly of his 'old friend'
Flexney, 'with whom I have passed many convivial and jovial hours.'

J. H. Prince, of Old North Street, Red Lion Square, Holborn, who wrote
and published his own eccentric 'Life' in 1806, and who, trying and
failing in nearly everything else, took to bookselling and book-writing,
evidently, like many other authors before and since, found soliciting
subscriptions for his book 'a most painful undertaking to a susceptible
mind.' His motto was, 'I evil ni etips,' or 'I live in spite.' A much
more important bookseller of Holborn was John Petheram, who lived at 94,
High Holborn in the fifties, and whose catalogues were styled 'The
Bibliographical Miscellany'; for some time, with each of his catalogues
he issued an eight-page supplement, which consisted of a reprint of some
very rare tract; the selection of some of these was in the hands of Dr.
E. F. Rimbault. A complete set of these catalogues would be extremely
interesting; we have only seen half a dozen of them, and these are in
the British Museum. A somewhat similar effort to give an extra interest
to catalogues was made a few years ago by J. W. Jarvis and Son, of King
William Street, and also by Pickering and Chatto, the Haymarket; but the
experiment apparently did not succeed.

[Illustration: _Middle Row, Holborn, 1865._]

Apart from Holborn, properly so called, Middle Row, an insulated row of
houses, abutting upon Holborn Bars, and nearly opposite Gray's Inn
Road, claims a notice here, for it was long a book-hunting locality, and
two bookshops, at least, existed there until the place was demolished in
August, 1867. Perhaps its most famous bookseller was John Cuthell, who
came to London from Scotland in 1771, and became assistant to Drew, of
Middle Row, whom he succeeded. He was publishing catalogues here from
1787, and did a very large export business with America. He was noted
for his stock of medical and scientific books. He was still at Middle
Row in 1813, when John Nichols published his 'Literary Anecdotes,' to
which he was a subscriber. Cuthell died at Turnham Green in 1828, aged
eighty-five. He was succeeded by Francis Macpherson, who issued the
thirtieth number of his catalogue in April, 1840, from No. 4, Middle
Row. The works offered comprised a selection of theological, classical,
and historical books. One of the most curious entries relates to an
extensive collection of books and pamphlets by and concerning the famous
Dr. Richard Bentley, five volumes in quarto, and thirty-one more in
octavo and duodecimo; the set (now, we believe, in the British Museum),
doubtless the most complete ever offered for sale, was priced at £25,
and was probably utilized in Dyce's editions of Bentley's
'Dissertations,' and in an edition of Bentley's 'Sermons at Boyle's
Lecture,' both of which Macpherson published. This catalogue is
interesting from the number of illustrations which it affords of the
transition period of English book-collecting; the various editions of
the classics are priced at very moderate figures, whilst English
classics are offered at comparatively 'fancy' sums. For example, a very
neat copy of the first edition of 'Tom Jones' is offered at 18s., and a
fine copy of John Bale's 'Image of Both Churches,' without date, but
printed by East at the latter part of the sixteenth century, at £1 7s.
J. Coxhead is another Holborn bookseller who may be regarded as a link
between the old and the new. He was at 249, High Holborn in 1840, and
had been established forty years. His lists were apparently issued only
once or twice a year; one of the notices in his catalogue may be quoted
here, as showing the chief medium by which country book-collectors were
supplied with their books: 'Gentlemen residing in the country had better
apply direct to J. Coxhead for any articles from this list, or they can
obtain them by giving the order to their country bookseller, and it will
be sent in their weekly parcel from London.' At about the same time, and
for nearly the same period, David Ogilby was selling second-hand books
at the same locality.

One of the most interesting of the Holborn booksellers was William
Darton, of 58, Holborn Hill, of whose shop we give an 'interior' view
from a plate engraved by Darton himself. William was a son of William
Darton, who founded the famous publishing house of Darton and Harvey, of
55, Gracechurch Street, in the latter part of the last century, their
speciality being children's books, which had a fame almost as extensive
as those of the great Mr. Newbery himself. He was joined by his brother
Thomas, and for two generations a successful business was carried on in
this place; the three generations of Dartons were prominent members of
the Society of Friends. The house chiefly devoted itself to publishing,
but it had a fairly large trade in selling the books issued by other
publishers. The firm ceased to exist about the time when the Holborn
Valley improvements swept away so many of the old landmarks of that
locality. Mr. Joseph W. Darton, the sole partner in Wells Gardner,
Darton and Co., is a grandson of the founder of the Holborn Hill house
and a great-grandson of the original William Darton. A history of the
Dartons would form as interesting a volume as that on John Newbery.

[Illustration: _William Darton, Bookseller_, The Founder of the House of
Darton and Harvey.]

Holborn is an additionally interesting book-locality from the fact that
it was from here that some of the first book-catalogues were issued.
This important innovation owes much to Charles Davis, whose shop was
'against Gray's Inn.' The earliest of these catalogues which we have
seen is a very interesting list of 168 pages octavo, and includes
'valuable libraries, lately purchased, containing near 12,000 volumes in
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, and English,' 'which
will be sold very cheap, the lowest price fix'd in each book, on
Thursday, May 7, 1747.' The list is in many respects very curious, not
the least of which is that not one of the items offered is priced. One
of the facts which strike one most forcibly in this connection is the
large capitals which must have been sunk in books even at this early
period. Davis, like all the other booksellers--notably Tonson and
Lintot--of that period, was a bookseller as well as publisher.

[Illustration: _Interior of Darton's Shop, Holborn Hill._]

Moving further westward, we find records of bookselling for just a
couple of centuries back. Robert Kettlewell was established at the Hand
and Sceptre, King's Street, Bloomsbury, whence he issued his kinsman's
apparently useful, and certainly very dull, pamphlet, entitled 'Death
Made Comfortable; or, The Way to Die Well,' and sold a variety of other
books besides. Making a leap of nearly a century, we meet with Samuel
Hayes, of Oxford Street, and evidently a relative of John Hayes, to whom
we have already referred. Samuel Hayes--when not in a French prison, for
he was actually incarcerated by Napoleon when on a visit to France--was
at this place of business for sixteen years, 1779 to 1795, and published
several catalogues. Isaac Herbert, nephew of the editor of Ames'
'Typographical Antiquities,' was selling books in Great Russell Street
in and about 1795; Joseph Bell was established as a bookseller in Oxford
Street in the earlier part of the present century; Shepperson and
Reynolds were in the same thoroughfare from 1784 to 1793, and sold
several very good libraries within the period indicated. Writing in
1790, Pennant mentions that the chapel of Southampton, or Bedford House,
Bloomsbury, was at that time rented by Lockyer Davis as a magazine of
books. How long it had been in Davis's tenancy is not certain, but he
died in 1791. William Davis, the author of several interesting
bibliographical books, including two 'Journeys Round the Library of a
Bibliomaniac,' was at the Bedford Library, Southampton Row, Holborn,
during the early part of the century. Name after name might be quoted if
any useful purpose would be served.

[Illustration: _James Westell's, 114, Oxford Street._]

There are many links which still connect the Holborn of to-day with the
Holborn and immediate district of the past. Three have, however, passed
away within recent years. Edward W. Stibbs, whose death occurred in the
spring of 1891, at the age of eighty, and whose stock was sold at
Sotheby's in the following year, was one of the veterans of the trade,
and was essentially of the old school--the school which confined itself
almost exclusively to classics. The second removal is that of Mr. J.
Brown, whose shop was nearly opposite the entrance to Chancery Lane, and
was for nearly thirty years an exceedingly pleasant rendezvous of
book-collectors, and whose proprietor was one of the most genial of
bibliopoles. The third is Edward Truelove, of 256, High Holborn, the
well-known agnostic bookseller, who removed here from the Strand, and
who had been in business over forty years. Mr. Truelove retired two or
three years since. Further up the road, in New Oxford Street, we find
the shop of Mr. James Westell, whose career as a bookseller embraces a
period of over half a century, having started in 1841. Mr. Westell
first began in a small shop in Bozier's Court, Tottenham Court Road, and
this shop has been immortalized by Lord Lytton in 'My Novel,' for it is
here that Leonard Fairfield's friendly bookseller was situated.[201:A]
Bozier's Court was a sort of eddy from the constant stream which passes
in and out of Oxford Street, and many pleasant hours have been spent in
the court by book-lovers. After Mr. Westell left, it passed into the
hands of another bookseller, G. Mazzoni, and finally into that of Mr. E.
Turnbull, who speaks very highly of it as a bookselling locality. Mr.
Turnbull added another shop to the one which was occupied by Mr.
Westell; but when the inevitable march of improvements overtook this
quaint place three or four years ago, Mr. Turnbull had to leave, and he
then took a large shop in New Oxford Street, where he now is. During Mr.
Turnbull's tenancy in Bozier's Court several rivals started round about
him; but one after another failed to make it pay, and retired, leaving
him eventually in entire possession. Another old Holborn bookseller, Mr.
George Glashier, who started in 1841, still has a large shop in
Southampton Row; not the shop which he occupied for very many years
within a few yards of Holborn, but nearer Russell Square, a less crowded
thoroughfare than the old place in the same street or row. The shop now
occupied by Mr. A. Reader, in Orange Street, Red Lion Square, has been a
bookseller's for over half a century, one of the most noted tenants of
it being Mr. John Salkeld, who removed nearly twenty years since to
Clapham Road, and whose charmingly rustic shop, 'Ivy House,' is quite
one of the sights of bookish London.

[Illustration: _Salkeld's Shop--'Ivy House'--in Clapham Road._]

Indeed, nearly every by-street,[202:A] as well as the public highway in
and around Holborn, has had its bookseller ever since the beginning of
the century. Lord Macaulay, C. W. Dilke, W. J. Thoms, Edward Solly, John
Forster, and the visions of many other mighty book-hunters, crowd on
one's memory in grubbing about after old books in this ancient and
attractive, if not always particularly savoury, locality. The two
Turnstiles have always been favourites with bibliopoles. Writing in
1881, the late Mr. Thoms said: 'Many years ago I received one of the
curious catalogues periodically issued by Crozier, then of Little
Turnstile, Holborn. From a pressure of business or some other cause, I
did not look through it until it had been in my possession for two or
three days, and then I saw in it an edition of "Mist's Letters" in three
volumes! In two volumes the book is common enough, but I had never heard
of a third volume; neither does Bohn in his edition of Lowndes mention
its existence. Of course, on this discovery, I lost no time in making my
way to Little Turnstile; and on asking for the "Mist" in three volumes,
found, as I had feared, that it was sold. "Who was the lucky purchaser?"
I asked anxiously; adding, "Aut Dilke aut Diabolus!" "It was not
Diabolus," was Crozier's reply; and I was reconciled when I found the
book had fallen into such good hands, and not a little surprised when
Crozier went on to say, "But he was not the first to apply for it. Mr.
Forster sent for it, but would not keep it, because it was not a
sufficiently nice copy."' Both the Great and the Little Turnstiles,
Holborn, have always been, as we have said, famous as book-hunting
localities, and they still preserve this reputation. In 1636 a
publisher and bookseller, George Hutton, was at the 'Sign of the Sun,
within the Turning Stile in Holborne.' J. Bagford, the celebrated
book-destroyer, was first a shoemaker in the Great Turnstile, a calling
in which he was not successful. Then he became a bookseller at the same
place, and still success was denied him. At Dulwich College is a library
which includes a collection of plays formed by Cartwright, a bookseller
of the Turnstile, who subsequently turned actor.

[Illustration: _John Bagford, Shoemaker and Book-destroyer._]

[Illustration: _Mr. Tregaskis's Shop--'The Caxton Head'--in Holborn._

(After a Drawing by E. J. Wheeler.)]

The chief and most enterprising firm of booksellers in Holborn proper is
that of Mr. and Mrs. Tregaskis, at No. 232, the corner of the New
Turnstile. The house itself is full of interest, and is quite a couple
of hundred years old. A century ago one of the most eventful scenes of
David Garrick's career was enacted here, for it was from this house that
the great actor was buried. Mrs. Tregaskis first started, as Mrs.
Bennett, at the corner of Southampton Row, and some time after removing
to her present shop, married Mr. James Tregaskis, and the two together
have built up a business which is scarcely without a rival in London.
The shop is literally crammed with rare and interesting books, whilst
'The Caxton Head Catalogues' are got up with every possible care. Almost
next door to the shop for many years occupied by the late Edward
Stibbs, Mr. Walter T. Spencer carries on a trade which is almost
entirely confined to first editions of modern authors. From Mr. R. J.
Parker's shop at 204, the present writer has picked up a very large
number of rare and interesting books, including a first edition of
Goldsmith--not, however, the 'Vicar'--at exceedingly moderate sums. Mr.
E. Menken, of Bury Street, New Oxford Street, is one of the most
successful booksellers of recent years, and his stock is both large and
select. Mr. Menken first started in Gray's Inn Road, nearly opposite the
Town Hall, five or six years ago, subsequently removing to Bury Street;
but his business grew so rapidly that he had to take the adjoining shop
into his service. Mr. Menken's model catalogues invariably contain
something which every book collector feels it is absolutely necessary
to have. He is a man of versatile abilities, literary and otherwise, and
includes among his customers no less a person than Mr. Gladstone.
Messrs. Bull and Auvache, of 35, Hart Street, Bloomsbury, are extensive
dealers in editions of the classics and Bibles. At one time there were
no less than four second-hand booksellers in Hyde Street, New Oxford
Street, but at present there is only one. Next door but one to Mudie's,
we have the shop of Mr. James Roche, who is a link with the past, having
started in 1850, and for many years carried on business in a little
corner shop in Southampton Row, one door from the Holborn highway.
Messrs. J. Rimell and Sons, noted for their extensive collection of
works on the fine arts and architecture, are at 91, Oxford Street. Among
the literary booksellers of the first quarter of the present century,
William Goodhugh, of 155, Oxford Street, deserves a mention here. 'The
English Gentleman's Library Manual,' 1827, is his best-known work,
although from a literary standpoint it is a poor concern; he also wrote
'Gates' to the French, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic and Syriac,
'unlocked by new and easy methods.' Goodhugh was conversant with several
of the Oriental and many European languages. His knowledge of books was
a very extensive and profound one, and as a literary bookseller he is an
interesting figure in the annals of bibliopolic history. Fifty years ago
many good books were picked up out of 'Miller's Catalogue of Cheap
Books,' which appeared monthly from 404, Oxford Street, that for
September, 1845, being numbered 127. A quarter of a century ago there
were several booksellers in Oxford Street, _e.g._, G. A. Davies, at 417;
W. Heath, at 497; J. Kimpton, at 303; E. Lumley, at 514; J. Pettit, at
528; and Whittingham.

[Illustration: _Day's Circulating Library in Mount Street._]

The further west one goes, the less interesting do the annals of
bookselling become, for Oxford Street is essentially a modern locality,
and second-hand bookselling never has thrived much in new localities. It
was, however, when rummaging over the contents of a stall in a Wardour
Street alley that Charles Lamb lighted upon a ragged duodecimo, which
had been the delight of his infancy. The price demanded was sixpence,
which the owner, himself a squab little duodecimo of a character,
enforced with the asseverance that his own mother should not have it for
a farthing less, supplementing the assertion with an oath and 'Now, I
have put my soul to it.' The book was the 'Queen Like Closet,' which, it
is scarcely necessary to say, Elia rescued from the man of profanity.
Soho has long been more or less of a bookselling quarter. John Paul
Manson, who was in King Street, Westminster, in 1786, and issued from
thence 'A Summer Catalogue' in 1795, subsequently removed to Gerard
Street, Soho, and died in 1812. He was especially well versed, not only
in Caxtons, but in all the best works of the early printers, and many
English black-letter books passed through his hands. Dibdin observes
that Professor Heyne could not have exhibited greater signs of joy at
the sight of the Towneley manuscript of Homer than did Manson on the
discovery of Rastell's 'Pastyme of the People' among the books of Mr.
Brand. Two sons of this Manson subsequently became partners in the firm
of Christie, the art auctioneers. The first Sampson Low started as a
bookseller in Berwick Street, Soho, in or about 1790.

Day's Library, the second oldest existing circulating library in London
(the oldest is that of Cawthorn and Hutt, established in 1744, Cockspur
Street), has continued from the year 1776 within a few hundred yards of
its present situation. In that year a Mr. Dangerfield established it on
the north side of Berkeley Square, and it was purchased from him by Mr.
Rice in 1810 or 1811, under whom it largely developed in extent and
reputation. In 1818 he removed into the adjoining Mount Street at No.
123 (south side), where for about fifty years the library remained.
Meanwhile it became the property of Mr. Hoby, and after one or two
changes successively of Mr. John and Mr. Charles Day, father and son. In
Mr. John Day's hands it crossed the road to No. 16 on the north side,
and remained there about twenty-four years, till that part of Mount
Street was cleared to make way for the present Carlos Place. Then in the
year 1890 it again crossed the road to No. 96, where Mr. Charles Day
holds a long lease. An early catalogue of the institution shows that the
eighteenth-century circulating libraries contained a portion of the
weightier works, such as history, biography, travels, etc., a fact which
is rarely realized in the face of the popular impression that it was
left to the late Mr. C. E. Mudie to supply such works.


ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD AND NEIGHBOURHOOD.

[Illustration: Paternoster Row on a Bank Holiday.]

The bookselling and book-hunting annals of the district which starts
with St. Paul's, and terminates at Charing Cross, might occupy a
goodly-sized volume. We must of necessity be brief, chiefly because both
Paternoster Row and St. Paul's Churchyard have been, for the most part,
book-publishing rather than second-hand bookselling localities. As a
literary highway, Paternoster Row is of considerable antiquity, for
Robert Rikke, a paternoster-maker and citizen, had a shop here in the
time of Henry IV., and there can be no question that its name originated
from the fact that it was at a very early period the residence of the
makers of paternosters, or prayer-beads. Before the Great Fire of 1666,
Paternoster Row was not much of a bookselling centre, for it was
inhabited chiefly by mercers, silkmen, and lacemen, whose shops were a
fashionable resort of the gentry who resided at that time in the
immediate vicinity. After the Fire, the Row gradually became famous for
its booksellers, or rather publishers, who resided at first near the
east end, and whose large warehouses were 'well situated for learned and
studious men's access thither, being more retired and private.' Although
the book-annals of Paternoster Row chiefly deal with matters subsequent
to the Great Fire, there were many publishers and booksellers there over
a hundred years before that calamity. In and about 1558 there were, for
example, two of the fraternity here established--Richard Lant and Henry
Sutton, the latter's shop being at the sign of the Black Morion. For
over twenty years, 1565 to 1587, Henry Denham was at the Star in
Paternoster Row, whence he issued, among a large number of other books,
George Turberville's 'Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs, and Sonnets' in 1570.

The last century, however, witnessed the rise of Paternoster Row as a
publishing locality. From 1678 and onwards book-auctions were held at
the Hen and Chickens at nine in the morning; at the Golden Lion over
against the Queen's Head Tavern, Paternoster Row, at nine in the morning
and two in the afternoon, and at other places both in the Row and in its
numerous tributaries, such as Ivy Lane, Ave Maria Lane, etc. Although
some of the earliest book-auctions held in this country took place in
the immediate vicinity of Paternoster Row, and although it had attained
a world-wide celebrity as a publishing centre, it has very few
interesting records as a second-hand bookselling locality. Awnsham and
John Churchill were located at the Black Swan in 1700; William Taylor,
the publisher of 'Robinson Crusoe,' 1719, was here at the sign of the
Ship early in the last century, and was succeeded by Thomas Longman in
1725, the present handsome pile of buildings, erected in 1863, being on
the original spot occupied in part by the founder of the firm. The
Longmans had a second-hand department attached to their house in the
early part of the present century, as we have already seen. Others which
may be here mentioned as being connected with the Row are Baldwin and
Cradock; and Ralph Griffiths, of the 'Dunciad'--'those significant
emblems, the owl and long-eared animal, which Mr. Griffiths so sagely
displays for the mirth and information of mankind'--for whom Goldsmith
wrote reviews in a miserable garret. The last firm of second-hand
booksellers of note who thrived in Paternoster Row was that of William
Baynes and Son; and the last of the race is still remembered by the
older generation of book-collectors, with his old-time appearance in
frills and gaiters. In 1826 Baynes published one of the most remarkable
catalogues (254 pages) of books printed in the fifteenth century which
has ever appeared. It is full of extremely valuable bibliographical
information. For many years John Wheldon, the natural history
bookseller, had a shop, chiefly for the sale of back numbers of
periodicals, at 4, Paternoster Row (as well as in Great Queen Street),
and this little shop subsequently passed into the tenancy of Jesse
Salisbury, who was there until six or seven years ago. The Chapter
Coffee-house, where so many important publishing schemes have been
mooted and carried out, still lingers in the Row, but modernized out of
all recognition.

The chief interest of St. Paul's Churchyard as a book locality centres
itself in the publishing rather than the second-hand bookselling phase.
One of our earliest printer-publishers, Julian Notary, was 'dwellynge in
powles chyrche yarde besyde ye weste dore by my lordes palyes' in 1515,
his shop sign being the Three Kings. At the sign of the White Greyhound,
in St. Paul's Churchyard, the first editions of Shakespeare's 'Venus and
Adonis' and 'Rape of Lucrece' were published by John Harrison; at the
Fleur de Luce and the Crown appeared the first edition of the 'Merry
Wives of Windsor'; at the Green Dragon the first edition of the
'Merchant of Venice'; at the Fox the first edition of 'Richard II.';
whilst the first editions of 'Richard III.,' 'Troilus and Cressida,'
'Titus Andronicus,' and 'Lear' all bear Churchyard imprints.

Not only were there very many booksellers' shops around the Yard, but at
the latter part of the sixteenth century bookstalls started up, first at
the west, and subsequently at the other doors of the cathedral. From a
letter addressed by Sir Clement Edmonds, March 28, 1620, to the Lord
Mayor, we gather that two houses were erected at the west gate of St.
Paul's without the sanction of the authorities, and these were ordered
to be removed, as were also certain 'sheds or shops that were being
erected near the same place.' A chief portion of the stock of these
shops and stalls would naturally be devotional books of various
descriptions. That these books were not always to be relied on we infer
from an amusing anecdote in the Harleian manuscripts, related by Sir
Nicholas L'Estrange, to the effect that 'Dr. Us[s]her, Bishop of Armath,
having to preach at Paules Crosse, and passing hastily by one of the
stationers, called for a Bible, and had a little one of the London
edition given him out, but when he came to looke for his text, that very
verse was omitted in the print.'

[Illustration: _John Evelyn, Book-collector._]

Mr. Pepys' bookseller, Joshua Kirton, was at the sign of the King's
Arms. Writing under date November 2, 1660, Pepys chronicles: 'In Paul's
Churchyard I called at Kirton's, and there they had got a masse book for
me, which I bought, and cost me 12s., and, when I come home, sat up late
and read in it with great pleasure to my wife, to hear that she was long
ago acquainted with it.' Kirton was one of the most extensive sufferers
of the bookselling fraternity in the Great Fire; from being a
substantial tradesman with about £8,000 to the good, he was made £2,000
or £3,000 'worse than nothing.' The destruction of books and literary
property generally, in and around St. Paul's, in this fire was enormous,
Pepys calculating it at about £150,000, and Evelyn putting it at
£200,000, or, in other words, about one million sterling as represented
by our money of to-day. Evelyn tells us that soon after the fire had
subsided the other trades went on as merrily as before, 'only the poor
booksellers have been indeed ill-treated by Vulcan; so many noble
impressions consumed by their trusting them to y{e} churches.'

[Illustration: _Newbery's Shop in St. Paul's Churchyard._

From an old woodcut.]

One of the most considerable of the Churchyard booksellers after the
Great Fire was Richard Chiswell, the father or progenitor of a numerous
family of bibliopoles. John Dunton, indeed, describes him as well
deserving of the title of 'Metropolitan Bookseller of England, if not of
all the world.' He was born in 1639, and died in 1711. In 1678 he sold,
in conjunction with John Dunmore, another bookseller, the libraries of
Dr. Benjamin Worsley and two other eminent men. At St. Paul's
Coffee-house, which stood at the corner of the entrance from St. Paul's
Churchyard to Doctors' Commons, the library of Dr. Rawlinson was, in
1711, sold--'at a prodigious rate,' according to Thoresby--in the
evening after dinner. Although not quite _à propos_ of our subject, we
can scarcely help mentioning the name of so celebrated a Churchyard
publisher as John Newbery, who lived at No. 65, the original site being
now covered by the buildings of the R.T.S.; his successors, Griffith and
Farran, were at No. 81 until the year 1889, when they moved westward. F.
and C. Rivington were at No. 62 for many years, as Peter Pindar tells
us:

     'In Paul's churchyard, the Bible and the Key,
        This wondrous pair is always to be seen,--
      Somewhat the worse for wear--a little grey--
        One like a saint, and one with Cæsar's mien.'

A mere list of the Churchyard booksellers would fill a goodly-sized
volume. In addition to those already mentioned, one of the most famous
and successful families who resided here were the Knaptons, where,
during the first three quarters of the last century, they built up an
enormous trade, and were succeeded by Robert Horsfield, who carried on
the business in Ludgate Street, and died in 1798. We possess one of the
interesting catalogues of James and John Knapton, whose shop was at the
sign of the Crown. It runs to twenty pages octavo, and enumerates an
extraordinary variety of literature. The books written and sermons
preached by right reverends and reverends occupy the first five pages,
arranged according to the authors' names; and then follow the works of
ordinary, commonplace mortals, sermons and Aphra Behn's romances, Mr.
Dryden's plays and the 'Whole Duty of Man' appearing cheek-by-jowl.

The most important contribution to the earlier history of bookselling
appeared from St. Paul's Churchyard in the shape of Robert Clavell's
'General Catalogue of Books printed in England since the Dreadful Fire,
1666, to the End of Trinity Term, 1676.' This catalogue was continued
every term till 1700, and includes an abstract of the bills of
mortality. The books are classified under their respective headings of
divinity, history, physic and surgery, miscellanies, chemistry, etc.,
the publisher's name in each case being given. Dunton describes Clavell
as 'an eminent bookseller' and 'a great dealer,' whilst Dr. Barlow,
Bishop of Lincoln, distinguished him by the term of 'the honest
bookseller.' Clavell's shop was at the sign of the Stag's Head, whilst
his partner in many of his projects was Henry Brome, of the Sun, also in
the Churchyard.

Joseph Johnson, the Dry Bookseller of Beloe, demands a short notice
here. He was born at Liverpool in 1738, and after serving an
apprenticeship with George Keith, Gracechurch Street, began business for
himself on Fish Street Hill, which, being in the track of the medical
students at the hospitals in the Borough, was a promising locality.
After some years here, he removed to Paternoster Row, where he had as
partners first a Mr. Davenport, and then John Payne; the house and stock
were destroyed by fire in 1770, after which he removed to St. Paul's
Churchyard, where he continued until his death in 1809, the father of
the trade. He was a considerable publisher, and 'two poets of great
modern celebrity were by him first introduced to the publick--Cowper and
Darwin.' Whilst at Fish Street Hill he took over the stock of John Ward,
of which he issued a catalogue.

Ludgate Hill to a certain degree not unnaturally secured a little of the
'bookish' brilliancy which diffused itself round and about the
Churchyard. The highway to the cathedral was naturally a good business
quarter, and there can be very little doubt that some of the stalls or
booths, which formed a sort of middle row in Ludgate, were occupied by
stationers and booksellers, who are not usually indifferent to the
advantages of a good thoroughfare. It never, however, came up to St.
Paul's Churchyard, either as a publishing or as a bookselling locality;
but many retailers were here during the latter part of the last century.
Queen Charlotte, wife of George III., is reported by Robert Huish to
have said to Mrs. Delany: 'You cannot think what nice books I pick up at
bookstalls, or how cheap I buy them.' The Rev. Dr. Croby, in his 'Life
of George IV.,' tells us that Queen Charlotte was in the habit of paying
visits, in company with some lady-in-waiting, to Holywell Street and
Ludgate Hill, 'where second-hand books were exposed for sale during the
last half of the eighteenth century.' During the earlier part of this
period, among the booksellers of note in Ludgate Street were Robert
Horsfield, William Johnston, and Richard Ware (who was a considerable
adventurer in new publications). The business established at about the
same period and in the same locality by Richard Manley, was considerably
extended by John Pridden (1728-1807). The libraries of many eminent and
distinguished characters passed through his hands, Nichols tells us. His
offers in purchasing them were liberal, and, being content with small
profits, 'he soon found himself supported by a numerous and respectable
set of friends, not one of whom ever quitted him.'

Jonah Bowyer was at the Rose, in Ludgate Street, in and about the year
1706, when he published the Lord Bishop of Oxford's 'Sermons preached
before the Queen' at St. Paul's in May of that year; and it was either
this Bowyer or William Bowyer--the two were not related--who established
a bookselling department on the frozen Thames in 1716. William Johnston,
who died at a very advanced age in 1804, was one of the most successful
of Ludgate Hill booksellers, and his employées included George Robinson
and Thomas Evans, each of whom became the founder of a very extensive
business. George Conyers was at the Ring, Ludgate Hill, for some years
during the last quarter of the seventeenth century, and prior to his
removal to Little Britain. Conyers dealt chiefly in Grub Street
compilations, which included cheap and handy guides to everything on
earth, and it is likely that his shop was a literary or book-collecting
resort. The most famous bibliopole who had a shop in Ludgate is perhaps
William Hone, to whom the liberty of the press owes so much, and who
removed here from his house at the corner of Ship Court, Old Bailey.
Trübner and Co. left Ludgate Hill soon after they amalgamated with Kegan
Paul, Trench and Co.


FLEET STREET.

The Churchyard is, of course, the home of bookselling, but, as we have
seen, as time went on, its children, so to speak, repudiated their
birthplace. In the middle of the sixteenth century, for example, Fleet
Street contained nearly as many bookshops as the parent locality. In
addition to this, England's second printer, Wynkyn de Worde, abandoning
the Westminster house of his master, William Caxton, took up his
residence in Fleet Street in or about the year 1500. The sign of his
shop was the Sun, 'agaynste the Condyte,' and as the Conduit stood at
the lower end of Fleet Street, a little eastward of Shoe Lane, we get
some idea of the exact locality. He was buried in St. Bride's Churchyard
in 1534. W. Griffith was busy at the sign of the Falcon, near St.
Dunstan's Church, printing booklets about current events with 'flowery'
titles, and these books he sold at his second shop, designated the
Griffin, 'a little above the Conduit,' in Fleet Street. William Powell,
at the George, was publishing religious books of various sorts, and a
'Description of the Countrey of Aphrique,' a translation of a French
book on Africa, which was perhaps the very first on a topic now pretty
nearly threadbare. Richard Tottell was dwelling at the Hand and Star,
between the two temple gates, and just within Temple Bar,[217:A] whence
he sent forth books by a score and more distinguished men, and whose
name is worthily linked with those of Littleton, More, Tusser, Grafton,
Boccaccio, and many others. In 1577 Elizabeth granted the same
individual the privilege of printing 'all kinds of "Law bookes," which
was common to all printers, who selleth the same bookes at excessive
prices, to the hindrance of a greate nomber of pore students.' Other
Fleet Street booksellers were William Copland, who issued a number of
books, T. and W. Powell, and Henry Wykes.

Two of the earliest Fleet Street booksellers, Robert Redman and Richard
Pynson, quickly got at loggerheads, the bone of contention being
Pynson's device or mark, which his rival stole. These are the
neighbourly terms which Pynson applies to Redman; they occur at the end
of a new edition of Littleton's 'Tenures,' 1525: 'Behold I now give to
thee, candid reader, a Lyttleton corrected (not deceitfully) of the
errors which occurred in him. I have been careful that not my printing
only should be amended, but also that with a more elegant type it should
go forth to the day: that which hath escaped from the hands of Robert
Redman, but truly Rudeman, because he is the rudest out of a thousand
men, is not easily understood. Truly I wonder now at last that he hath
confessed it his own typography, unless it chanced that even as the
Devil made a cobbler a mariner, he hath made him a Printer. Formerly
this scoundrel did profess himself a Bookseller, as well skilled as if
he had started forth from Utopia. He knows well that he is free who
pretendeth to books, although it be nothing more.' This pretty little
quarrel continued some time, and broke out with renewed vigour on one or
two subsequent occasions; but the rivals ultimately became friends, and
when Pynson retired from business, he made over his stock to 'this
scoundrel' Redman, who then removed to Pynson's shop, next to St.
Dunstan's Church.

The bibliopolic history of Fleet Street is almost synonymous with the
literary history of this country. Anything like an exhaustive account,
even so far as relates to the bookselling side of the question, would be
quite out of place in a work of this description. A few points,
therefore, must suffice. Apart from the booksellers already mentioned,
the following are also worthy of notice. At the latter part of the
sixteenth century Thomas Marsh, of the Prince's Arms, near St.
Dunstan's, issued Stow's 'Chronicles,' and was the holder of several
licenses for printing; for nearly half a century J. Smethwicke (who died
in 1641) had a shop 'under the diall' of St. Dunstan's, whence he issued
Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' 'Love's Labour Lost,' 'Romeo and Juliet,'
'Taming of the Shrew,' as well as works by Henry Burton, Drayton,
Greene, Lodge, and others; Richard Marriot was in St. Dunstan's
Churchyard early in the seventeenth century, and his ventures included
Quarles' 'Emblems,' 1635, Dr. Downes' 'Sermons,' 1640, and Walton's
'Compleat Angler,' 1653, for which 1s. 6d. was asked, and for a good
copy of which £310 has been recently paid; Marriot was also the sponsor
of the first part of Butler's 'Hudibras,' 1663. Thomas Dring, of the
George, near Clifford's Inn; John Starkey, of the Mitre, between the
Middle Temple Gate and Temple Bar, the publisher of Shadwell's plays,
and for some time an exile at Amsterdam; Abel Roper, of the Black Boy,
over against St. Dunstan's Church, and publisher of the _Post Boy_
newspaper; Thomas Bassett, with whom Jacob Tonson was apprenticed;
Tonson himself, of the Judge's Head, near the Inner Temple Gate (he
started in Chancery Lane), are Fleet Street booksellers of the latter
half of the seventeenth century. Early in the following century we get
such names as Benjamin Tooke, of the Middle Temple Gate; Edmund Curll,
whose chaste publications appeared from the sign of the Dial and Bible,
against St. Dunstan's Church; Bernard Lintot, Tonson's great rival and
Pope's publisher, of the Cross Keys, between the Temple Gates; Ben
Motte, who succeeded Tooke; Andrew Millar, Samuel Highley, John Murray,
and many others who might be mentioned, but who were publishers rather
than second-hand booksellers.

One of the earliest, and perhaps the very first, of the Fleet Street
contingent of booksellers who advertised their stock through the medium
of priced catalogues was John Whiston, the younger son of the famous
William Whiston. Whiston sold several important libraries, including
those of such eighteenth-century celebrities as D'Oyly, Dr. Castell,
Wasse, Chishull, Dr. Banks, Prebendary John Wills, Adam Anderson (author
of 'The History of Commerce'), and many others; he included a large
number of literary men among his acquaintances. From 1756 to 1765 he
appears to have been in partnership with Benjamin White, and the
libraries which they sold during this period included those of the Rev.
Stephen Duck; Thomas Potter, Esq., M.P., son of the Archbishop of
Canterbury; Charles Delafaye, Esq., of the Secretary of State's Office;
Dr. James Tunstall, Vicar of Rochdale, etc. Of all the second-hand
booksellers of the latter half of the last century the most considerable
was the Benjamin White above mentioned, whose shop was at the sign of
Horace's Head, in Fleet Street, and whose bulky catalogues, often
including over 10,000 lots, are now very rare and exceptionally
interesting. The contents of these catalogues were classified, first
into three divisions, folio, quarto, and octavo and duodecimo, and then
again into numerous sections according to the subject-matter of the
volumes. 'The sale will begin' on such and such a day, and 'catalogues
may be had' at various stated booksellers' shops in London, and at
Oxford, and 'the principal towns of England.' From 1716 to 1792 Benjamin
White and his son and namesake issued catalogues of various collections
of books, including the libraries (or selections from) of Dr. Thomas,
Bishop of Salisbury; Sir William Calvert, M.P. for London; Dr. Secker;
Rev. Joseph Spence; Dr. Hutchinson, editor of Xenophon; Dr. William
Borlase; Dr. Matthew Maty, Secretary of the Royal Society, and Principal
Librarian, British Museum; Sir Richard Jebb; Rev. John Bowles, editor of
'Don Quixote'; Rev. John Lightfoot, chaplain to the Countess Dowager of
Portland, and author of the 'Flora Scotica.'

One of White's best customers was the eccentric George Steevens, who,
however, discontinued his daily visits, after many years' regular
attendance, for no real cause. He then transferred his attentions to
Stockdale's, whom in turn he abruptly forsook. The elder Benjamin
retired from business with 'a plentiful fortune,' and died at his house
in South Lambeth in March, 1794, and Benjamin junior retired to
Hampstead a few years after his father, leaving the business to a
younger brother, John, who continued bookselling until the earlier part
of the present century, when he, in his turn, gave up active work for
the 'enjoyment of a country life' with 'an easy competence.' In one of
the catalogues of this celebrated firm--our copy is minus the
title-page, but it was evidently issued about 1790--four of the most
interesting entries occur among the folios: Caxton's 'Lyfe of the
Faders,' with 'curious old wooden plates, not quite perfect, in Russia,'
is priced at £5 5s.; Caxton's 'Lyfe of our Lady,' by John Lydgate, is
offered at 10s. 6d.; a _fair_ copy of Caxton's 'Lyfe of St. Katherine
of Senis' is figured at £10 10s., the price asked also for a 'fair, not
quite perfect' example of the 'Golden Legende.' A Second Folio
Shakespeare is priced at £4; a Fourth Folio at £1 7s. The same catalogue
includes a copy of the famous 'Book of Hawking and Hunting,' printed at
St. Albans in 1486, but unfortunately the price is omitted, as is the
case with several other important rarities. The Whites published some
fine natural history books, including those of Pennant, Latham, and
White of Selborne; the last was a relative of the booksellers. Whiston
was succeeded by Nathaniel Conant, who sold, _inter alia_, the library
of Samuel Speed, 1776, and John White was succeeded by his partner, J.
G. Cochrane. Sixty years ago Charles Tilt, afterwards Tilt and Bogue,
occupied 85, Fleet Street, and a charming view of this shop appears in
Cruikshank's 'Almanack' for March, 1835.

[Illustration: _Charles Tilt's Shop._

From Cruikshank's 'Comic Almanac.']

Although the bookselling history of Fleet Street did not cease with the
general migration of booksellers, from the end of the last to the
beginning of the present century much of its glory as such had
departed. During the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century
its bibliopolic annals are indeed few. One of its most interesting
houses was situated at No. 39, upon part of the site of the present
banking-house of Messrs. Hoare. Here formerly stood the famous Mitre
Tavern; this place was much damaged during the Great Fire, and was
partly rebuilt. In the last century it was a favourite resort of Wanley,
Vertue, Dr. Stukeley, Hawkesworth, Percy, Johnson, Boswell, and many
other celebrities. Johnson and Boswell first dined here in 1763. It was
here that the 'Tour to the Hebrides' was planned; it was here also, at a
supper given by Boswell to the Doctor, Goldsmith, Davies, the
bookseller, Eccles, and the Rev. John Ogilvie, that Johnson delivered
himself of the theory that 'the noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever
sees is in the highroad that leads to England.' From 1728 to 1753 the
Society of Antiquaries met here, and for some time also the Royal
Society held its meetings in this place. In 1788 the tavern ceased to
exist, and the house became the 'Poets' Gallery' of Macklin, whose
edition of the Bible is described as an unrivalled monument of his taste
and energy. Thomas Macklin died in 1800, and the erstwhile Mitre gave
place--possibly not at once, but certainly very soon after--to Saunders'
Auction-rooms. The most important sale which occurred here, and of which
we have discovered any record, was an anonymous one in February, 1818;
the catalogue was entitled 'Bibliotheca Selecta: Library of an eminent
Collector, removed from the North of England.' This sale occupied six
days, and comprised a very fine series of books of old English poetry,
history, topography, and illustrated books. For instance, a very fine
copy in a genuine state of the First Folio Shakespeare realized the then
high figure of £121 16s. A copy of Yates's 'Castell of Courtesie,' 1582,
sold for £23 2s., Steevens' copy eighteen years previously going for £2
10s. A large number of other excessively rare books, several of which
were unique, were sold here at the same time; but whose they were, or
how they could have drifted into such an unimportant auction centre as
Saunders', are questions which we are not able to answer. Fifty years
ago there were at least three important firms of literary auctioneers in
Fleet Street--Henry Southgate (who eventually turned author, and who
died about three years ago), at No. 22; L. A. Lewis, at No. 125; and E.
Hodgson, referred to on p. 116. At each of these three centres many
extensive collections of books came under the hammer. When the elder
Southgate died or retired, in about 1837, two of his assistants,
Grimston and Havers, left, and started on their own account at 30,
Holborn Hill, making the auction of books a speciality; but their
existence appears to have been brief.

The neighbourhood had, however, a book-auction repute long before the
present century dawned, and the Rose Tavern, near Temple Bar, was a
favourite locality for this method of selling books. Samuel Baker here
sold the entire library ('Bibliotheca Elegans') of Alderman Sir Robert
Baylis in 1749, and that of Conyers Middleton, Principal Librarian of
the University of Cambridge, March 4, 1750-51, and nine following
days--by order and for the benefit of the widow, who in the preface
'takes this opportunity to assure the public that this catalogue
contains the genuine library of Dr. Middleton, without any alteration,
and is sold for my advantage'--there were 1,300 lots.


THE STRAND.

[Illustration: _Butcher Row, 1798._]

The modernization of the Strand, but more particularly the erection of
the New Law Courts from Temple Bar to Clement's Inn, has destroyed very
many book-hunting and literary localities. This project involved the
obliteration of thirty-three streets, lanes and courts, and the
levelling of 400 dwelling, lodging and ware houses, and so forth,
sheltering over 4,000 individuals. It has entirely altered the aspect of
the place; not perhaps before it was necessary, for the whole
neighbourhood had degenerated into rookeries of the vilest description.
Among the localities swept away, a brief reference may be made to one
which has a twofold interest--Butcher Row--first, because Clifton's
Eating-house, one of Dr. Johnson's favourite resorts, was in this Row,
and secondly because one of the earliest catalogues of second-hand books
was issued from within a yard or two of Clifton's. J. Stephens' shop was
at the sign of the Bible in Butcher Row, and towards the latter part of
1742 he published 'a catalogue of several libraries of books lately
purchased, in several languages,' etc., the price of each book being, as
usual, marked on the first leaf before the sale commenced, which sale
was announced to begin 'on Tuesday, the 2nd of November, 1742,' and 'to
continue till all are sold.' For a copy of this exceedingly rare and
interesting catalogue we are indebted to Mr. Dobell, the bookseller. It
comprises twenty-six pages octavo, and enumerates over 1,300 books, the
majority of which are priced. There are very few volumes in this list
which are now included in anyone's desiderata, but the list itself is a
very good indication of the book-buying tastes of our forbears of a
century and half ago. Butcher Row, it may be mentioned, was immediately
beyond St. Clement's Church (on the northern side of the Strand), and by
the end of the last century had degenerated into a number of wretched
fabrics and narrow passages, the houses greatly overhanging their
foundations; in or about 1802, this street was pulled down and gave
place to Pickett Street, so named because the improvement was the scheme
of Alderman Pickett.

[Illustration: _Charles Hutt's House in Clement's Inn Passage._]

One of the last bookselling haunts to be pulled down was the quaint old
shop occupied by the late Charles Hutt (who, by the way, was born in the
vestry of the Clare Market chapel-of-ease) where many famous
book-hunters had picked up bargains. Charles Hutt, had he lived, would
have become one of the leading booksellers of the day. He was for some
years at Hodgson's, and possessed a remarkable taste for, and knowledge
of, books. He left Hodgson's and started on his own account in the old
ramshackle house already referred to. This shop presented so
unfavourable an exterior that even the Income-tax Fiend never 'called
in,' although at one time there were several thousands of pounds' worth
of books in it. Hutt did a very extensive trade, not only in this
country, but in America. He had an especial aptitude at completing sets
of particular authors--Landor, Leigh Hunt, Byron, Shelley--and
contributed much to the prevailing taste for modern first editions. A
younger brother, Mr. F. H. Hutt, has been for some years established at
10, Clement's Inn Passage, within a few yards of the old shop. The
associations of the past half-century of this neighbourhood include two
other well-known firms of booksellers. Theophilus Noble, who had removed
from 114, Chancery Lane, was at 79, Fleet Street for some years until
his death in 1851, and a member of the same family is still a
second-hand bookseller opposite St. Mary-le-Strand Church. Reeves and
Turner removed from Noble's old house in Chancery Lane, to the house on
the west side of Temple Bar and adjoining it on the north, erected on
the site of the famous old bulk-shop, the last of its race, where at one
time Crockford, 'Shell-fishmonger and gambler,' lived. When Temple Bar
was removed, this shop came down, and Reeves and Turner (who for the
second time had to bow to the necessities of 'improvements') opened
their well-known place on the south side of the Strand, facing St.
Clement's Church. Their spacious shop here for about a quarter of a
century was a famous book-haunt, and one of the very few successful ones
which have existed in a crowded thoroughfare. It always contained an
immense variety of good and useful books, priced at exceedingly moderate
amounts, and the poorer book-lover could always venture, generally
successfully, on suggesting a small reduction in the prices marked
without being trampled in the dust as a thief and a robber. A year or
two ago, when the lease of the shop expired, Messrs. Reeves and Turner
bibliopolically ceased to exist--there not being a Reeves or a Turner in
the Chancery Lane firm of booksellers of that name--but Mr. David
Reeves, a son of Mr. William Reeves, started in Wellington Street,
Strand, the latter, the _doyen_ of London booksellers, occupying a
portion of the house as a publisher and a dealer in remainders.

[Illustration: _Mr. William D. Reeves, Bookseller._]

The most famous bookselling locality in this district is Holywell
Street, or, as it is now generally called, Booksellers' Row. This street
has always been afflicted with a questionable repute, not without cause,
and much of the ill-odour of its past career still clings to it. Even
second-hand bookselling has not purged it entirely. Half a century ago
its shops were almost entirely taken up with the vendors of second-hand
clothes, and the offals of several other more or less disreputable
trades. Above these shops resided the Grub Street gentry of the period.
'It was,' says one who knew it well, 'famous for its houses of call for
reporters, editors and literary adventurers generally, all of whom
formed a large army of needy, clever disciples of the pen, who lived by
their wits, if they had any, and in lieu of those estimable
qualifications, by cool assurance, impudence, and the gift of their
mother tongue in spontaneous and frothy eloquence.' It was also a famous
and convenient place 'for literary gentlemen and others, who were
desirous of evading bailiffs and sheriffs' officers who might be anxious
of making their acquaintance,' for even if they were traced to the
Holywell Street entrance of any particular house, they could easily
escape into Wych Street, and so slip the myrmidons of the law. It next
became the emporium of indecent literature (from which charge it is not
yet quite free), but much of this peculiar trade was suppressed by Lord
Campbell's Act. For nearly half a century the place has been growing in
popularity as a _locus standi_ of the reputable second-hand book trade.
Every book-hunter of note has known, or knows, of its many shops.
Macaulay, for example, obtained many of his books from Holywell Street.
The late Mr. Thoms related, in the _Nineteenth Century_, a very curious
incident which put the great historian in possession of some French
_mémoires_ of which he had long been endeavouring to secure a copy.
Macaulay was once strolling down this street, when he saw in a
bookseller's window a volume of Muggletonian tracts. 'Having gone in,
examined the volume, and agreed to buy it, he tendered a sovereign in
payment. The bookseller had not change, but said if he (Macaulay) would
just keep an eye on the shop, he would step out and get it. His name, I
think, was Hearle, and he had some relatives of the same name who had
shops in the same street. This shop was at the west end of the street,
and backed on to Wych Street; and at the back was a small recess,
lighted by a few panes of glass, generally somewhat obscured by the
dust of ages. While Macaulay was looking round the shop, a ray of
sunshine fell through this little window on four little duodecimo
volumes bound in vellum. He pulled out one of these to see what the work
was, and great was his surprise and delight at finding these were the
very French _mémoires_ of which he had been in search for many years.'

More rare and interesting books have been picked up in this street
during the past forty years than in any other locality. Rumour, which
sometimes tells the truth, says that Shelley's copy, with his autograph
on the title-page, of Ossian's 'Poems' was picked up here for a few
pence. A book with Shakespeare's autograph on the title-page was also
said to have been rescued from among a lot of cheap books in this
locality a few years ago. We are not certain, but we believe that the
Shakespeare autograph has been proved to be a forgery. If that is so,
then perhaps the honour of being the greatest 'find' ever discovered,
about four years ago, in Holywell Street, pertains to a perfect copy of
'Le Pastissier François,' 1655, the most valuable of all the Elzevirs,
its value being from about £60 to £100. The copy in question was bound
up with a worthless tract, and history has not left on record what the
bookseller thought when he discovered his ignorance. A copy of the first
edition of Horne's 'Orion,' 1843, was purchased in this street for 2d.
in 1886, its market value being about £2. It was originally issued at
1/4d., by way of sarcasm on the low estimation of epic poetry. The
Holywell Street bookseller did not appraise it at a much higher figure
than the author. Scarcely a week passes without a volume possessing
great personal or historic interest being 'bagged' in this narrow but
delightful thoroughfare. Many of these finds, it is true, may not be of
great commercial value, but they are oftentimes very desirable books in
more respects than one. The present writer has been fortunate in this
matter. No person would now rank James Boswell, for instance, among
great men, but a book in two volumes, with the following inscription,
'James Boswell, From the Translator near Padua, 1765,' would not be
reckoned costly at 1s., the book in question being a beautiful copy of
Cesarotti's translation into Italian of Ossian's 'Poems.' David Hume's
own copy of 'Histoire du Gouvernement de Venise,' par le Sieur Amelot de
la Houssaie, 1677, was not dear at 6d., and at a similar price was
obtained an excessively rare volume (for which a well-known
book-collector had been on the look-out in vain for many years), whose
contents are little indicated by the title of 'Roman Tablets,' 1826, but
whose nature is at all events suggested by the sub-title of 'Facts,
Anecdotes, and Observations on the Manners, Customs, Ceremonies and
Government of Rome.' It is a terrific exposure (originally written in
French), for which the author was prosecuted at the solicitation of the
Pope's Nuncio at Paris. The late John Payne Collier has told of a
Holywell Street 'find' as far back as January 20, 1823, when he picked
up a very nice clean copy of Hughes' 'Calypso and Telemachus,' 1712, for
which he paid 2s. 6d. It was not, however, until he reached home that he
discovered the remarkable nature of his purchase, which had belonged to
Pope, who had inscribed in his own autograph thirty-eight couplets,
addressed 'To Mr. Hughes, On His Opera.' These are only a selection from
an extensive series of more or less interesting 'finds,' of which every
collector has a store.

Two of the earliest and best-known of the more important Holywell Street
booksellers passed away some years ago. 'Tommy' Arthur, who made a
respectable fortune out of the trade, and whose shop and connections are
now in the possession of W. Ridler, who is a successful trader, and a
man of considerable independence as regards the conventionalities of
appearances. (Our artist's portrait of this celebrity in his brougham,
indulging in the extravagance of a clay pipe, had not arrived at the
time of going to press, so it must be held over until the next edition
of this book.) Joseph Poole was another Holywell Street bookseller of an
original type, with his quaint semi-clerical attire. This bibliopole's
relatives still carry on business in this street, school-books being
with them a speciality. The _doyen_ of the street is Mr. Henry R. Hill,
whose two shops are at the extreme east end of the street. Mr. Hill has
been here for about forty years, and has seen many changes, not only in
the general character of the street, but also of the tastes in
book-fancies. Mr. Hill's shops, with Mrs. Lazarus's three hard by, are
full of interesting books, priced at very moderate figures. The latter
has been established here for about fifteen years. Messrs. Myers, who
also occupy three bookshops in this street, were for some years with
Mrs. Lazarus; and Mr. W. R. Hill acquired a great deal of his
book-knowledge at Reeves and Turner's. Mr. Charles Hindley has been long
established in this street.

[Illustration: _Messrs. Hill and Son's Shop in Holywell Street._]

The step from fifth-rate book-making to second-hand bookselling is not a
great one, and just as Holywell Street sheltered the Grub-writers of
half a century ago, so Drury Lane and its immediate vicinity was their
recognised locality in the earlier part of the last century. It is
impossible to associate respectability, to say nothing of fashion, with
this evil-smelling, squalid thoroughfare. And yet there can be no
question about its having been at one time an aristocratic quarter.
Until within the last few years, the Lane itself, and its numerous
tributaries, contained many second-hand bookshops. The most celebrated,
and, indeed, almost the only one of any interest, was Andrew Jackson,
who made a speciality of old and black-letter books. Nichols tells us
that for more than forty years he kept a shop in Clare Market, and here,
'like another Magliabecchi, midst dust and cobwebs, he indulged his
appetite for reading; legends and romances, history and poetry, were
indiscriminately his favourite pursuits.' In 1740 he published the first
book of 'Paradise Lost' in rhyme, and ten years afterwards a number of
modernizations from Chaucer. The contents of his catalogues of the years
1756, 1757, 1759, and one without date, were in rhyme. He retired in
1777, and died in July, 1778, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.
Charles Marsh, another literary bookseller, was for some time a friend
and neighbour of Jackson's. Marsh (who afterwards removed to a shop now
swallowed by the improvements in Northumberland Avenue, Charing Cross)
was situated at Cicero's Head, in New Round Court, off the Strand, and
is described by one who knew him as being afflicted with 'a very unhappy
temper, and withal very proud and insolent, with a plentiful share of
conceit.' He wrote a poem entitled 'The Library, an Epistle from a
Bookseller to a Gentleman, his Customer; desiring him to discharge his
bill,' 1766. He was originally a church-clerk. The only catalogue of
this celebrity which we have seen is a bulky one, over 100 pages octavo,
enumerating 3,000 books, 'among which are included the libraries of the
Rev. Mr. Gilbert Burnet, Minister of Clerkenwell, and an eminent
apothecary, both lately deceased.' The date is May 7, 1747. Some of the
prices in this catalogue can only be described as absurd; for example,
Lydgate's 'Bochas; or, The Fall of Princes,' 1517, 5s.; a collection of
old plays and poems, two volumes, 1592, 6s.; Tusser's 'Five Hundred
Points of Good Husbandry,' 1574, 2s. 6d.; and black-letter books by the
score are here offered at sums from one to three or four shillings each.
The neighbourhood has for many years ceased to be a bookselling
locality, for although book-hunters prefer side-streets and quiet
thoroughfares for the prosecution of their hobby, the pestiferous
vapours of Drury Lane would kill any bibliopolic growth more vigorous
than a newsvendor's shop.

[Illustration: _Messrs. Sotheran's Shop in Piccadilly._]

When, by slow degrees, the various trades moved in a direction west of
Temple Bar, it was only natural that the trade in second-hand books
should be similarly attracted. The Strand itself, which, at the end of
the last century and beginning of the present, was a much narrower
street than it is now, is not, and never has been, a great
book-emporium, for a reason which we have more than once pointed out.
But the immediate vicinity has been for over a century and a half, as it
still continues to be, the favourite locality of some of the chief
booksellers. To-day the Strand proper only contains three
representatives, in Messrs. H. Sotheran and Co., the finer of whose two
shops is in Piccadilly, and Mr. David Nutt (both of whom are, however,
vendors of new books, and often act as publishers), and Messrs.
Walford. Within a stone's-throw of the main thoroughfare we have John
Galwey and Suckling and Galloway, Garrick Street; James Gunn and
Nattali, Bedford Street; B. F. Stevens, Trafalgar Square; H. Fawcett,
King Street; W. Wesley and Sons, Essex Street; and many others. One of
the most interesting incidents in connection with the Strand relates to
a house which stood between Arundel and Norfolk Streets, where, at the
end of the seventeenth century, lived the father of Bishop Burnet. 'This
house,' says Dr. Hughson, writing in 1810, 'continued in the Burnet
family till within living memory, being possessed by a bookseller of the
same name--a collateral descendant of the Bishop.' Of much more
importance, however, is the fact that at 132, Strand a bookseller named
Wright started, about 1730, the first circulating library in London.
About ten years afterwards he was succeeded by William Bathoe ('a very
intelligent bookseller' who died in October, 1768), who carried on the
circulating library in addition to bookselling. Bathoe was a
book-auctioneer as well as a retail vendor; he sold the books of
'William Hogarth, Esq., sergeant-painter,' under the hammer. In or about
the year 1747 he had established himself 'in Church Lane, near St.
Martin's Church in the Strand, almost opposite York Buildings,' whence
he issued a thirty-eight-paged (octavo) catalogue, comprising the
'valuable library of the learned James Thompson Esq., deceased, with the
collection of a gentleman lately gone abroad'; this list enumerates
nearly 1,000 items, the prices, ranging from 6d. upwards, being
uniformly low. Walton's 'Compleat Angler,' 1661, 'with neat cuts,' would
not be long unsold at 3s. 6d.; and the same may be said of Purchas's
'Pilgrimage,' 1617, 2s. 6d.; of Rochester's complete poems at 2s.; and
very many others. At 'No. 18 in the Strand' lived J. Mathews, the
bookseller, and father of Charles Mathews, the actor; and in this house
the latter was born. Jacob Tonson was at 'Shakespeare's Head, over
against Catherine Street, in the Strand,' now 141; the house, since
rebuilt, was afterwards occupied by Andrew Millar, who deposed
Shakespeare, and erected Buchanan's Head instead. Millar was succeeded
by his friend and apprentice, Thomas Cadell (who became a partner in
1765), in 1767; he retired in 1793. Cadell's son then became head of the
concern, and took William Davies into partnership. The firm of Cadell
and Davies existed until the death of the latter in 1820, after which
Cadell (the Opulent Bookseller of Beloe) continued it in his own name
until his death in 1836. Samuel Bagster; Whitmore and Fenn; J. Walter
(an apprentice of Robert Dodsley, and the founder of the _Times_);
William Brown (an apprentice of Sandby), Essex Street, who died in 1797,
and who was succeeded by Robert Bickerstaff; Henry Chapman, Chandos
Street, 1790-1795; W. Lowndes; and Walter Wilson, of the Mews Gate, were
Strand booksellers of more or less note during the latter part of the
last, and the earlier part of the present, century.


CHARING CROSS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD.

John Millan was one of the most famous of Charing Cross or Whitehall
booksellers, for he was located here for over half a century, dying in
1784, aged over eighty-one years. Richard Gough drew the following
picture of Millan's shop in March, 1772: 'On my return from Westminster
last night, I penetrated the utmost recesses of Millan's shop, which, if
I may borrow an idea from natural history, is incrusted with literature
and curiosities like so many stalactitical exudations. Through a narrow
alley, between piles of books, I reached a cell, or _adytum_, whose
sides were so completely cased with the same _supellex_ that the
fireplace was literally _enchâsse dans la muraille_. In this cell sat
the deity of the place, at the head of a whist party, which was
interrupted by my inquiry after _Dillenius_ in sheets. The answer was,
he "had none in sheets or blankets." . . . I emerged from this shop,
which I consider as a future Herculaneum, where we shall hereafter root
out many scarce things now rotting on the floor, considerably sunk below
the level of the new pavement.' Millan was succeeded by Thomas and John
Egerton, the latter being 'a bookseller of great eminence'--the
Black-letter Bookseller of Beloe--whose death occurred in 1795. 'It was
in his time,' says Beloe, 'that Old English books, of a particular
description both in prose and verse, were, for some cause or
other--principally, perhaps, as they were of use in the illustration of
Shakespeare--beginning to assume a new dignity and importance, and to
increase in value at the rate of 500 per cent.' Another Charing Cross
bookseller, Samuel Leacroft (who succeeded Charles Marsh), died in 1795,
and it is rather curious that John Egerton was a son-in-law of Lockyer
Davis, whilst his neighbour was an apprentice.

Of Samuel Baker, whose shop was in Russell Street, Covent Garden, we
have already spoken in our account of book-auctioneers. One of his
early--May, 1747--catalogues (not auction) comprises the libraries of
Dr. Robert Uvedale, and of this divine's son and namesake, also a D.D.,
of Enfield; it enumerates over 3,000 items. Thomas Becket (an apprentice
of Millar, and Sterne's first publisher) and P. De Hondt were successful
Strand booksellers; the former finally settled himself in Pall Mall, and
was one of the first to make a speciality of foreign books, of which he
imported large quantities between 1761 and 1766. C. Heydinger, of the
Strand, was a German bookseller who issued catalogues from 1771 to 1773,
and who died in distressed circumstances about 1778. Henry Lasher
Gardner, who died at a very advanced age in 1808, was a venerable
bookseller, whose shop was opposite St. Clement's Church, Strand; he
published catalogues between 1786 and 1793. William Otridge, at first
alone, and afterwards in partnership with his son, issued catalogues
from the Strand during the last quarter of the last century. In 1796
Joseph Pote was selling books at the Golden Door, over against Suffolk
Street, Charing Cross. John Nourse (died 1780), bookseller to his
Majesty, was another celebrated bibliopole of the Strand, and is
described by John Nichols as 'a man of science, particularly in the
mathematical line.' Francis Wingrave succeeded Nourse.

One of the most celebrated booksellers of this neighbourhood during the
last half of the eighteenth century was Tom Davies, who sported his
rubric posts[237:A] in Russell Street, Covent Garden, and who was driven
from his position as actor in Garrick's company by Churchill's killing
satire:

     'He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone.'

In spite of satirists, the verdict of his contemporaries is ratified, so
to speak, in voting Tom Davies a good fellow. Dr. John Campbell
described him as 'not a bookseller, but a gentleman dealing in books';
and the Rev. P. Stockdale described him as 'the most gentleman-like
person of that trade whom I ever knew.' Dr. Johnson said he was 'learned
enough for a clergyman,' which was an equivocal compliment, for the
clergymen of the period were not, as a rule, learned. Davies was
generally talkative, but at times quite the reverse, and sometimes
uttered pious ejaculations. Between 1764 and 1776 Davies sold a number
of interesting and valuable libraries--those, for example, of William
Shenstone and William Oldys. Davies, like many other contemporary
booksellers, was fond of scribbling, and was the author of 'Memoirs of
Garrick,' and other books.

Probably the most famous bookseller of the Strand is Thomas Payne, who
for over half a century (1740-1794) was selling books in this locality.
'Honest Tom Payne' started business in or about 1740, for in February of
that year he issued a catalogue of 'curious books in divinity, history,
classics, medicine, voyages, natural history,' etc., from the 'Round
Court,[237:B] in the Strand, opposite York Buildings.' About ten years
later (January, 1750) he had removed to the Mews Gate to a shop shaped
like the letter L, which became one of the most famous literary resorts
of the period. Just before leaving Round Court, Tom Payne issued a sort
of clearance catalogue, comprising 10,000 volumes, 'which will be sold
very cheap.' The Mews Gate was near St. Martin's Church, and probably
close to the bottom of the new thoroughfare, Charing Cross Road. It was
at this shop that all the book-collectors of the day most congregated,
for it was to Tom Payne's that the majority of libraries were
consigned--_e.g._, those of Ralph Thoresby, Sir John Barnard, Francis
Grose, Rev. S. Whisson, and many others whose names are now nothing but
names, but who were at the time well-known collectors. Tom Payne's
customers included all the bibliophiles of the period. 'Must I,' asks
Mathias in the 'Pursuits of Literature'--

     'Must I, as a wit with learned air,
      Like Doctor Dewlap, to Tom Payne's repair,
      Meet Cyril Jackson and mild Cracherode,
      'Mid literary gods myself a god?
      There make folks wonder at th' extent of genius
      In the Greek Aldus or the Dutch Frobenius,
      And then, to edify their learned souls,
      Quote pleasant sayings from _The Shippe of Foles_.'

[Illustration: _Honest Tom Payne._]

Mathias describes Tom Payne as 'that Trypho emeritus,' and as 'one of
the honestest men living, to whom, as a bookseller, learning is under
considerable obligations.' Beloe, in his 'Sexagenarian,' states that at
Tom Payne's and at Peter Elmsley's, in the Strand, 'a wandering scholar
in search of pabulum might be almost certain of meeting Cracherode,
George Steevens, Malone, Wyndham, Lord Stormont, Sir John Hawkins, Lord
Spencer, Porson, Burney, Thomas Grenville, Wakefield, Dean Dampier, King
of Mansfield Street, Towneley, Colonel Stanley,' and others. Savage
professed to have picked up his 'Author to Let' at 'the Mews Gate on my
way from Charing Cross to Hedge Lane.' Tom Payne (who was a native of
Brackley) came into possession of his famous shop at the Mews' Gate
through his marriage with Elizabeth Taylor, whose brother built and for
some time occupied it. About 1776 Tom Payne ('Bookseller Extraordinary
to the Prince Regent, and Bookseller to the University of Oxford') took
his son into partnership, to whom fourteen years later he relinquished
the business, and died in February, 1799, in his eighty-second year.
Thomas Payne the younger (to whom Dibdin dedicated his 'Library
Companion,' 1825) remained here until 1806, when he removed to Pall
Mall; in 1813 he took Henry Foss, who had been his apprentice, into
partnership. The former died in 1831, and was succeeded by his nephew,
John Payne, and Henry Foss, who retired from the trade in 1850, when
their stock came under the hammer at Sotheby's. In the preface to his
'Library Companion,' 1825, Dibdin speaks very highly of the catalogue of
Payne and Foss: 'Since the commencement of this work, Messrs. Payne and
Foss have published a catalogue of 10,051 articles. I have smiled, in
common with many friends, to observe rare and curious volumes selling
for large sums at auctions, when sometimes _better_ copies of them may
be obtained in that incomparable repository in Pall Mall at two-thirds
of the price. Whoever wants a _classical fitting out_ must betake
themselves to this repository.'

The bibliopolic history of the Mews Gate did not terminate with the
younger Tom Payne. When he removed to a more aristocratic quarter, the
shop passed into the occupation of William Sancho, the negro bookseller,
whose father, Ignatius, was born in 1729 on board a ship in the slave
trade soon after it had quitted the coast of Guinea. William Sancho died
before 1817, and was succeeded at the Mews Gate by James Bain, who
afterwards removed to No. 1, Haymarket, where the business is still
carried on, 'in accordance with the best bookselling traditions, by his
younger son, the second James Bain having died early in 1894.' The Mews
was taken down in 1830, and was used in its latter days to shelter
Cross's Menagerie from Exeter 'Change.

One of the oldest firms of Strand booksellers was that started in 1686
by Paul Vaillant, who, at the time of the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes, escaped to England. His shop was opposite Southampton Street,
and his chief dealings were in foreign books. He was succeeded by his
sons Paul and Isaac, and then by his grandson, Paul III., the son of
Paul II. The second Paul purchased a quantity of books at Freebairn's
sale for the Earl of Sunderland, and his joy at securing the copy of
Virgil's 'Opera,' printed 'per Zarothum,' 1472, is duly chronicled by
Nichols; he was one of the booksellers employed by the Society for the
Encouragement of Learning. He died in 1802, aged eighty-seven, and as
both of his two sons had elected to follow other occupations, the
business passed into the hands of Peter Elmsley, the great friend and
companion of Gibbon, whose 'Decline and Fall,' however, he did not see
his way to publish; he was a great linguist, and possessed 'an amount of
general knowledge that fitted him for conversation and correspondence
upon a familiar and equal footing with the most illustrious and
accomplished of his day.' At the end of the last century he resigned
the business to his shopman, David Bremner, 'whose anxiety for acquiring
wealth rendered him wholly careless of indulging himself in the ordinary
comforts of life, and hurried him prematurely to the grave.' He was
succeeded by James Payne (the youngest son of the famous Tom) and J.
Mackinlay, both of whom also came to premature ends, the former through
being long confined as a prisoner in France.

Among the most famous of the Strand booksellers of the earlier part of
the present century were Rivington and Cochran, of No. 148 (near
Somerset House), and Thomas Thorpe, of 38, Bedford Street. With these
two firms it really seemed a question as to which could issue the most
bulky catalogues. The earliest example which we have seen of the former
is dated 1825; it extends to over 800 pages, and comprises nearly 18,000
items in various languages and in every department of literature. Thomas
Thorpe was undoubtedly the giant bibliopole of the period. If anything
striking or original occurred in the bookselling world, it was generally
Thorpe who did it. Dibdin describes him as 'indeed a man of might.' His
catalogues, continues the same writer, 'are of never-ceasing production,
thronged with the treasures which he has gallantly borne off, at the
point of his lance, in many a hard day's fight, in the Pall Mall and
Waterloo Place arenas. But these conquests are no sooner obtained than
the public receives an account of them, and during the last year only
his catalogues, in three parts, now before me, comprise no fewer than
179,059 articles. What a scale of buying and selling does this fact
alone evince! But in this present year two parts have already appeared,
containing upwards of 12,000 articles. Nor is this all. On September 24,
1823, there appeared the most marvellous phenomenon ever witnessed in
the annals of bibliopolism.[241:A] The _Times_ had four of the five
columns of its last page occupied by an advertisement of Mr. Thorpe,
containing the third part of his catalogue for that year. On a moderate
computation, this advertisement comprised 1,120 lines. The effect was
most extraordinary. Many wondered, and some remonstrated; but Mr. Thorpe
was master of his own mint, and he never mentions the circumstance but
with perfect confidence, and even gaiety of heart, at its success.'
Thorpe issued catalogues from 1829 to 1851, and during one year alone,
1843, his lists comprised over 16,000 lots. In 1836 he removed from
Bedford Street to 178, Piccadilly. Thorpe was the first _merchant_ in
autographs, and Sir Thomas Phillipps was one of the first _collectors_
who flourished in the iniquity of the pursuit, and it was the latter who
on one occasion purchased the entire contents of one of Thorpe's
autograph catalogues.

Another distinguished bibliopole of this locality, or, more correctly,
of Great Newport Street, was Thomas Rodd, who died in April, 1849, in
his fifty-third year. The business was really started by his father and
namesake, who was a man of considerable literary ability, and who
abandoned his intention of entering the Church when he became possessed
of a secret for making imitation diamonds, rubies, garnets, etc. In 1809
he added bookselling to that of manufacturing sham stones. After getting
into trouble with the Excise on account of the latter accomplishment, he
devoted himself entirely to the book-trade. The elder Rodd died in 1822,
and his son, the more famous bibliopole, succeeded to the business,
which he developed in an extraordinary manner within a few years. His
memory and knowledge of books were almost limitless, and, like Thomas
Thorpe, most of his schemes were on a scale to create a sensation.
Rodd's catalogues are of great bibliographical value. In spite of his
extensive connections, his stock at the time of his death was enormous.
It was sold, in ten different instalments, at Sotheby's, between
November, 1849, and November, 1850.

[Illustration: _Henry G. Bohn, Bookseller._]

[Illustration: _John H. Bohn._]

Henry G. Bohn may be regarded as the connecting link between the old and
the new school of booksellers. He was born in London on January 4, 1796,
and died in August, 1884. His father was a bookbinder of Frith Street,
Soho, but when he removed to Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, he added
(in 1814) a business in second-hand books. Between this year and 1830,
H. G. Bohn paid repeated visits to the Continent as his father's buyer.
In 1831 he married a daughter of Mr. Simpkin, of Simpkin, Marshall and
Co. He started in business for himself, and rapidly built up an
extensive trade, far exceeding any of his rivals. At about the same time
his brother James also started on his own account, at 12, King William
Street, Charing Cross, whilst the third brother, John Hutter Bohn, who
has been for nearly forty years the cataloguer at Sotheby's and is still
living, attended to the original business. Bohn's famous 'Guinea
Catalogue' was deservedly regarded as a great triumph in its way,
although it has been far surpassed by the splendid catalogues of his
whilom apprentice, B. Quaritch. Bohn's fame now rests almost exclusively
in his publishing ventures, which proved a veritable gold-mine to the
originator, and are still highly lucrative investments in the hands of
Messrs. George Bell and Sons. He 'edited' an edition of Lowndes'
'Bibliographer's Manual,' and his name occurs on the title-pages of a
great many books dealing with an extensive variety of subjects. It is
scarcely necessary to say that Bohn has very little claim to be regarded
either as an editor or as an author, unless the cash purchase of the
product of other men's brain and study conferred either of these titles
upon him. He was, however, a remarkable person, with a very wide
knowledge of books. While quite a young man he catalogued the books of
Dr. Parr. The growing extent of his publishing business killed the
second-hand trade, so far as he was concerned, and his stock was
disposed of at Sotheby's in the years 1868, 1870, and 1872, occupying
fifty days in selling, and realizing a total of over £13,300. Both Henry
G. Bohn and his brother James dealt largely in remainders, and of this
class of merchandise each issued catalogues early in the year 1840 (and
at other times), and the difference in the extent of the trade done by
the two brothers may be indicated by the fact that the catalogue of the
former extends to 132 pages, whilst that of the latter is only 16 pages.
In this, as in everything else which he undertook, H. G. Bohn was first
and his rivals nowhere. One of Bohn's rivals in the 'forties' was Joseph
Lilly, who once undertook to purchase everything important in the book
line which was offered, but he soon gave up the idea. His shop was for
some time at 19, King Street, Covent Garden, and his catalogues always
contained a large number of select books. He had served a short time at
Lackington's, and was distinguished for the zeal with which he purchased
First Folio Shakespeares. Lilly died in 1870, and his vast stock came
under the hammer at Sotheby's in six batches, 1871-73.

[Illustration: _Mr. F. S. Ellis._]

King William Street, Strand, until the last three or four years, had
been for nearly a century a famous emporium of second-hand bookshops.
Its most famous inhabitant in this respect was Charles John Stewart
(whom Henry Stevens, of Vermont, described as the last of the learned
old booksellers), who was born in Scotland at the beginning of the
present century, and died on September 17, 1883. He was one of
Lackington's pupils, and started as a second-hand bookseller with
Howell, subsequently carrying on the business alone. His chief commodity
was theological books, and when his stock--perhaps the largest of its
kind known--came to be sold, it realized close on £5,000. Joel Rowsell
was another famous bibliopole who resided in this street, and he, like
Stewart, retired in 1882. G. Bumstead (whose speciality was curious or
eccentric books; he was distinctly an 'old' bookseller, for he rarely
bought anything printed after 1800), Molini and Green, J. M. Stark, and
J. W. Jarvis and Sons, were also, at one time or another, in this
bookselling thoroughfare, which is now entirely deserted by the
fraternity. Doubtless one of the most successful of modern bibliopoles
who lived in the vicinity of the Strand is Mr. F. S. Ellis, who was an
apprentice of James Toovey, and who in a comparatively few years built
up a business second only to that of Quaritch. Mr. Ellis (who purchased
the valuable freewill of T. and W. Boone's connection) compiled the
greater portion of the catalogue of the celebrated Huth Library, and
since he has retired to Torquay has taken up book-editing with all the
zeal which characterized his earlier career as a bookseller. Mr. Ellis's
shop was at 33, King Street, Covent Garden, and afterwards at 29, New
Bond Street, and the prestige of his name is worthily maintained by his
nephew, Mr. G. I. Ellis (with whom is Mr. Elvey), at the latter address.
The whole neighbourhood of which Covent Garden may be taken as the
centre, is full of a bibliopolic history, which dates back to the
beginning of the last century. The time when Aldines were to be picked
up at 1s. 6d. each, and when Shakespeare Folios were to be had for 30s.
each round about the Piazza, has, it is true, long gone by; but a very
large library, in almost any branch of literature, may be easily formed,
at a very moderate cost, any day within a stone's-throw of London's
great vegetable market. It may be mentioned, _en passant_, that George
Willis, the editor-publisher of _Willis's Current Notes_, was for many
years at the Great Piazza, Covent Garden. The firm subsequently became
known as Willis and Sotheran, and is now Sotheran and Co.: this highly
respectable house was established in Tower Street, E.C., as far back as
1816.

[Illustration: _A Corner at Ellis and Elvey's._]


WESTMINSTER HALL.

[Illustration: _Westminster Hall when occupied by Booksellers and
others._

From a Print by Gravelot.]

There is not, perhaps, in the whole world, a more interesting
bookselling locality than Westminster Hall. This place is redolent with
historical associations, with parliaments, coronations, revelries, and
impeachments. Stalls for books, as well as other small merchandise, were
permitted in the hall of the palace of Westminster early in the
sixteenth century. The poor scholars of Westminster also were employed
in hawking books between school-hours. In the procession of sanctuary
men who accompanied the Abbot of Westminster and his convent, December
6, 1556, was 'a boy that killed a big boy that sold papers and printed
books, with hurling of a stone, and hit him under the ear in Westminster
Hall.' In the churchwardens' accounts of the parish of St. Margaret,
Westminster, there is, under date 1498-1500, an entry: 'Item, Received
for another legende solde in Westmynster halle, v_s._ viij_d._,' the
'legende' being one of the thirteen copies of 'The Golden Legend'
bequeathed by Caxton to the 'behove' of the parish of St. Margaret's.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century Tom Nash wrote: 'Looke to it,
you booksellers and stationers, and let not your shop be infested with
any such goose gyblets, or stinking garbadge as the jygs of newsmongers;
and especially such of you as frequent Westminster Hall, let them be
circumspect what dunghill papers they bring thether: for one bad
pamphlet is inough to raise a dampe that may poyson a whole towne,' etc.
At first the shops or stalls were ranged along the blank wall on the
southern side of the hall. Subsequently they occupied not only the whole
of the side, but such portion of the other as was not occupied by the
Court of Common Pleas, which then sat within the hall itself, as did the
Chancery and King's Bench at its farther end. Gravelot's print of the
hall during term-time shows this arrangement. The stationers and other
tradespeople in the hall were a privileged class, inasmuch as they were
exempt from the pains and penalties relative to the license and
regulation of the press. Here as elsewhere there were plenty of inferior
books obtainable; Pepys, writing October 26, 1660, and referring to some
purchases made in the hall, remarks: 'Among other books, one of the life
of our Queen, which I read at home to my wife, but it was so sillily
writ that we did nothing but laugh over it.' The stalls were
distinguished by signs. One of the early issues of 'Paradise Lost,'
1668, contains the name, among others, of Henry Mortlock, of the White
Hart, Westminster Hall, but whose shop was at the Phoenix, St. Paul's
Churchyard; Raleigh's 'Remains,' 1675, was printed for Mortlock. The
majority of the hall booksellers had regular shops in St. Paul's
Churchyard or elsewhere, for it is scarcely likely that they would open
these stalls during vacation. Matthew Gilliflower, of the Spread Eagle
and Crown, was one of the most enterprising of his class during the last
quarter of the seventeenth century. James Collins, of the King's Head,
was here contemporaneously with Gilliflower. C. King and Stagg were also
extensive partners in 'adventures' in new books, and were among the
'unprejudiced booksellers' who acted as agents for the _Gentleman's
Magazine_ during the first year of its existence. At about the same time
also, B. Toovey and J. Renn, were selling books here. Early in the reign
of George III. the traders were ousted from Westminster Hall; and in
1834 the dirty and mutilated vast parallelogram was thoroughly cleaned
and repaired. Westminster Hall as a bookselling centre bears the same
affinity to the trade proper as the sweetmeat stalls at a fair bear to
confectionery. The books exposed for sale would only by a rare chance be
choice or notable, and it was certainly not a likely place for folios or
quartos.


BOND STREET AND PICCADILLY.

At the latter part of the seventeenth and the beginning of the
eighteenth century, several booksellers had established themselves in
Bond Street and Pall Mall. One of the best known is John Parker, 'an
honest, good-natured man,' with whom was apprenticed, in 1713, Henry
Baker, the antiquary, a friend of John Nichols. Parker's shop was in
Pall Mall. At No. 29, New Bond Street, in 1730, we find J. Brindley, a
reputable bookseller of his time, and who was one of a society formed in
1736 'for the encouragement of learning,' which had a chequered and an
undignified career. His shop was at the sign of the Feathers, and in
1747 he describes himself as 'Bookseller to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales.'
The only example of his catalogue which we have seen is dated 1747, and
it includes 4,289 lots, among which were long selections of books at 1s.
each, or 10s. per dozen, and of others at 6d. each or 5s. per dozen.
Brindley was succeeded in 1759 by his apprentice, a much more celebrated
bibliopole, James Robson, who built up a very extensive connection and
died in 1806. In company with James Edwards and Peter Molini (the Exotic
Bookseller of Beloe), Robson, in 1788, undertook a journey to Venice for
the purpose of examining the famous Pinelli Library, which was purchased
for about £7,000; it was safely transferred to London and sold by
auction in Conduit Street, the total result being £9,356. A large
number of more or less famous collections of books passed through
Robson's hands, notably those of Sir John Evelyn; Edward Spelman, the
translator of Xenophon; the Duke of Newcastle (1770); W. Mackworth Praed
(1772); Joseph Smith, Consul at Venice; Dr. Samuel Musgrave; J. Murray,
Ambassador at Constantinople. Messrs. Robson and Clark were succeeded
early in this century by Nornaville and Fell, who in 1830 made way for
T. and W. Boone, who were, as we have said, succeeded by Mr. F. S.
Ellis; it is interesting to note that this house had been in the
occupation of booksellers for over a century and a half.

The bookselling fraternity had, however, obtained no definite footing
until shortly after the middle of the eighteenth century, when James
Almon began to acquire notoriety, his political fearlessness more than
once bringing him at loggerheads with the authorities. When he first
came to London, he worked as a printer at Watts', in Wild's Court,
Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he had the frame which had been occupied by
Benjamin Franklin. His shop was opposite Burlington House, and for many
years this was the meeting-place of the leading Whig politicians. He
died in 1805, and was succeeded by J. Debrett, a name still associated
with publishing.

During the last few years of the last century, and probably in
consequence of the greatly improved condition of the place, Piccadilly
and neighbourhood became favourite spots with booksellers, the more
notable being James Ridgway, whose 'repository of loyalty' was in York
Street, St. James's Square, who died in 1838, aged eighty-three years;
T. Hookham, Old Bond Street; and Stockdale, whose name will be for ever
associated with that of Erskine in connection with the liberty of the
press. Stockdale's shop, No. 178, Piccadilly, was for a long time in the
possession of Thomas Thorpe; the place has since been rebuilt. R.
Faulder, of New Bond Street, also deserves mention as being one of forty
booksellers against whom actions were brought for selling the 'Baviad
and Mæviad.' He is the Cunning Bookseller of Beloe, and appears to have
been one of the most assiduous frequenters of 'forced' sales of
household furniture, etc., where he often happened on books of rarity
and value. He 'accumulated a very large property and retired,' but the
_auri sacra fames_ pursued him to the end. William Clarke, of New Bond
Street, best remembered as the compiler of that very valuable work,
'Repertorium Bibliographicum,' 1819, was established as a bookseller in
1793. During the second half of the last century Samuel Parker and
Walter Shropshire were selling second-hand books in New Bond Street.
Thomas Beet, who retired from business ten years ago, was a well-known
bookseller of Bond Street and Conduit Street, and was a considerable
purchaser at the leading auction sales. He frequently had the honour of
submitting various special old books for the inspection of the Queen,
the Prince of Wales, and other members of the Royal Family, whilst his
shop in Conduit Street was a very popular resort of bookish men.

Robert Dodsley, of Tully's Head, is one of the most famous of the Pall
Mall booksellers. His shop was next to the passage leading into King
Street, and now known as Pall Mall Place. He is perhaps better
remembered as an author and compiler than as a bookseller, and best of
all as a friend of Dr. Johnson, Pope, Spence, and other literary
celebrities; he it was who first urged Johnson to start the famous
'Dictionary.' Dodsley died in 1764, and his business was taken over by
his brother James, who survived the founder thirty-three years. The
celebrated firm of G. and W. Nicol, booksellers to his Majesty, for many
years carried on in Pall Mall in Dodsley's shop, originated with David
Wilson and his nephew George Nicol, who started in the Strand about
1773, and who sold, _inter alia_, the library of Dr. Henry Sacheverell.
George Nicol married the niece of the first Alderman Boydell, and was
one of the executors of James Dodsley, who left him a legacy of £1,000.
He is described as 'a most agreeable companion,' as a member of many of
the literary clubs of his day, and enjoyed the friendly confidence of
the Duke of Roxburghe, Duke of Grafton, and other eminent book-lovers.
He died in Pall Mall, 1829, aged eighty-eight years. Nicol's stock was
sold by auction at Evans's in 1825.

[Illustration: _John Hatchard (1768-1849)._]

The most ancient book-business in Piccadilly is that of Hatchard's,
which dates back to 1797. It was started by John Hatchard, who had been
an assistant at Tom Payne's. Hatchard was patronized by Queen Charlotte,
the Archbishop of Canterbury, Canning, and Dr. Keate. Hatchard is the
Godly Bookseller of Beloe; he was a Conservative, dressed like a bishop,
and published for Hannah More and the Evangelicals. Zachary Macaulay,
Wilberforce, and the other opponents of slavery, once involved Hatchard
in a libel action, in which he was found guilty. Hatchard published for
Crabbe and for Tupper, and, according to Mr. Humphreys' interesting
'Piccadilly Bookmen,' Liston, Charles Kemble, and other actors,
frequented the shop. So did the Duke of Wellington, who, 'when the
library of the Duke's brother was sold at Evans's Auction Rooms in Pall
Mall, where now stands the Carlton Club . . . sent several open
commissions for books which he wished secured. Among these was a
shilling pamphlet by A. G. Stapleton, with the late owner's notes in
pencil. This was put up at 2s. 6d., and ultimately knocked down for £93
to Hatchard, the under-bidder being Sir A. Alison. The Duke, though very
much astonished at the price such a mere fragment had fetched, yet
admired the obedience to his orders.' The Horticultural Society took its
rise in a meeting at Hatchard's, and he also seems to have lent his
premises to the 'Outinian Society,' a species of matrimonial agency,
which did not last long; but the wonder is how so respectable and
cautious a personage ever harboured it. Among his assistants were
Fraser, afterwards noted for his magazine, and Tilt.

[Illustration: _James Toovey, Bookseller._]

The two great second-hand booksellers of the Piccadilly of the latter
half of the present century are James Toovey and Bernard Quaritch.
Toovey's shop at 177, Piccadilly (once occupied by William Pickering,
the famous publisher), was for about forty years a favourite haunt of
booksellers, for Toovey was a bibliophile as well as a bibliopole. His
whole life was spent among books. He was apprenticed at fourteen to a
bookseller, and for some time had a shop of his own in St. James's
Street. He published Newman's 'Lives of the English Saints,' and other
works by the leaders of the Tractarian movement, in addition to a very
fine reprint of the 'Aberdeen Breviary,' of the original of which only
four imperfect copies exist. An obituary notice describes him as 'very
particularly the great authority on bindings. He made a strong
speciality in old French red morocco bindings, and during his frequent
visits to France brought back large buyings of them. Toovey bought
notable books, but unless they had the second qualification of being in
a good state, and the bindings valuable, he was less anxious about them.
Given a notable book in a notable binding, he would buy it at almost any
cost. When the present Mr. James Toovey--James Toovey _fils_--came into
the business, he made a feature of those quaint sport and pastime books
which every stroller along the south side of Piccadilly has been wont to
stay and look at in Toovey's window. Ten years before his death the old
man retired from the business in favour of his son, but his devotion to
rare books and rare bindings was his ruling passion to the last.
Toovey's, during its career, has known all the prominent book-hunters
and a legion of eminent people who have been more than book-collectors.
In the leisured times, Toovey's, like Hatchard's further along the
street, was something of a resort for literary folk generally, and many
people we who are younger are familiar with have been accustomed to find
their way across Toovey's doorstep. Mr. Gladstone has visited the shop,
and so has Cardinal Manning, and Prince Lucien Bonaparte, and Henry Huth
often.' Having acquired a considerable fortune in business, he was able
to indulge in the luxury, rare amongst booksellers, of collecting a
private library for his own entertainment. He retired from active
business several years ago, and passed his remaining days in the
ever-delightful society of his bibliographical treasures. He died in
September, 1893, in his eightieth year, and his stock of books came
under the hammer at Sotheby's in March, 1894, when 3,200 lots realized
just over £7,090. His very choice private library is still in the
possession of his son, and among its chief cornerstones is the finest
First Folio Shakespeare known. Toovey, like the elder Boone, secured
many excessively rare books during his personal visits to the Continent.
Pickering's son, Basil Montagu Pickering, remained with Toovey for a few
years after his father retired, but eventually opened a shop on his own
account at 196, Piccadilly, next to St. James's Church, and possessed at
one time and another many exceedingly rare books. The name is still
continued under the title of Pickering and Chatto, of 66, Haymarket, who
continue to use the Aldine device employed both by William Pickering and
his son. There is no Pickering in the present firm.

[Illustration: _James Toovey's Shop, Piccadilly._]

[Illustration: _Bernard Quaritch, the Napoleon of Booksellers._]

Of all second-hand booksellers, living or dead, Bernard Quaritch is
generally conceded to be the king. Mr. Quaritch was born in 1819 at
Worbis, Prussia, and after serving an apprenticeship to a bookseller
came over to England in 1842, and obtained employment at H. G. Bohn's,
with whom he remained (exclusive of two years in Paris) until 1847. He
left Bohn's in April of that year, with the observation: 'Mr. Bohn, you
are the first bookseller in England, but I mean to be the first
bookseller in Europe.' Quaritch started with only his savings as
capital, and his first catalogue was nothing more than a broadside, with
the titles of about 400 books, the average price of which ranged from
1s. 6d. to 2s. His first big move was made in 1858, when the Bishop of
Cashel's library was sold, when he purchased a copy of the Mazarin Bible
for £595. In the same year appeared his first large catalogue of books,
which comprised nearly 5,000 articles; two years later his catalogue had
increased from 182 to 408 pages, and included close on 7,000 articles;
in 1868 his complete catalogue consisted of 1,080 pages, and 15,000
articles; in 1880 it had extended to 2,395 pages, describing 28,000
books; but seven years later his General Catalogue consisted of 4,500
pages, containing 40,000 articles. As a purchaser, Mr. Quaritch puts the
whilom considered gigantic purchases of Thomas Thorpe entirely into the
shade. In July, 1873, he purchased the non-scientific part of the Royal
Society's Norfolk Library; a few weeks later at the Perkins sale he
bought books and manuscripts to the extent of £11,000; at the sale of
Sir W. Tite's books in 1874 the Quaritch purchases amounted to £9,500;
at the two Didot sales in 1878 and 1879 his purchases exceeded £11,000
in value; at the Beckford sale in 1882 a little more than half of the
total (£86,000) was secured by Mr. Quaritch; at the Sunderland sale,
1881-83, Mr. Quaritch's bill came to over £33,000; at all the other
great sales of the past twenty years the largest buyer has invariably
been 'B. Q.' In an announcement 'To Book Lovers in all Parts of the
World,' the Napoleon of bibliophiles makes the following statement: 'I
am desirous of becoming recognised as their London agent by all men
outside of England who want books. The need of such an agent is
frequently felt abroad by the heads of literary institutions,
librarians, and book-lovers generally. They shrink from giving trouble
to a bookseller in matters which require more attention and effort than
the mere furnishing of some specific article in his stock, and they must
often wish that it were possible to have the services of a man of
ability and experience at their constant command. Such services I freely
offer to anyone who chooses to employ them; no fee is required to obtain
them, and not a fraction will be added to the cost of the supplies. The
friendly confidence which is necessarily extended to one's agent at a
distance will undoubtedly in time bring an ample return for my labours,
but so far as the present is concerned, I ask for nothing but the
pleasure of attending to the wants of those who are as yet without an
agent in London. Whether the books to be procured through my
intervention be rare or common, single items or groups, the gems of
literature and art or the popular books of the day, I shall be happy to
work in every way for book-lovers of every degree. Commissions of any
kind may be entrusted to me; I will venture to guarantee satisfaction in
every case, even in the delicate matter of getting books appropriately
bound. It may likewise be well to state that my offer of agency extends
to the selling of foreign books here, as well as to the supply of
English books hence.' There is not much that is architecturally
beautiful about Mr. Quaritch's shop at 15, Piccadilly, but its interest
to the book-lover needs but little emphasis after what has been said.
Like all great men, Bernard Quaritch has his little eccentricities, into
which we need not now enter. We apologize to him for publishing the
following extract, which is, however, not our own, but comes (of course)
from an American source: 'Bernard Quaritch's antiquated hat is a
favourite theme with London and other bookmen. A committee of the
Grolier Club once made a marvellous collection of newspaper clippings
about it, and a member of the Société des Bibliophiles Contemporains
wrote a tragedy which was a parody of Æschylus. In this tragedy Power
and Force and the god Hephaistos nail the hat on Mr. Quaritch's head,
like the Titan on the summit of overhanging rocks. Divinities of the
Strand and Piccadilly, in the guise of Oceanidæ, try to console the hat;
but less fortunate than Prometheus, the hat knows it is for ever nailed,
and not to be rescued by Herakles. However, _tout passe, tout casse,
tout lasse_, as Dumas said, for Mr. Quaritch has bought a new hat, and a
journal of London announces that the epic hat is enshrined in glass in
the bibliopole's drawing-room.'

One of the most modern of book-thoroughfares deserves a brief reference
here. Charing Cross Road has for some years been a popular and
successful resort of booksellers and book-hunters. It is within
convenient reach of both the Strand and Holborn, and is only two or
three minutes' walk from Piccadilly Circus. The books offered for sale
here are, for the most part, priced at exceedingly moderate rates. Mr.
Bertram Dobell may be regarded as the chief of the trade here,
possessing, as he does, two large shops well filled with books of all
descriptions. Mr. Dobell's catalogues are very carefully compiled, and
possess a literary flavour by no means common; his lists of
privately-printed books form a most valuable contribution to the
bibliography of the subject. Mr. John Lawler, for many years chief
cataloguer at Puttick's, and more recently at Sotheby's, had a shop in
Charing Cross Road, which he has just given up; and Mr. A. E. Cooper,
who makes a speciality of first editions of modern authors and curious
and out-of-the-way books, both French and English.

[Illustration]


FOOTNOTES:

[176:A] Sewell, Cornhill, and Becket and De Hondt, Strand, were among
the last to use these curious trade signs.

[192:A] The identical book with which Johnson knocked down Osborne,
'Biblia Græca Septuaginta,' folio, 1594, Frankfort, was at Cambridge in
February, 1812, in the possession of J. Thorpe, bookseller, who
afterwards catalogued it.

[192:B] Timbs, writing in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1868, identified
the house at which Tonson probably lived, and this house was in Timbs's
time a bookseller's. Gray's Inn Lane has become so thoroughly renovated
and improved that it is no longer possible to point to any particular
spot where any celebrity lived.

[201:A] 'One day [writes Lytton] three persons were standing before an
old bookstall in a passage leading from Oxford Street into Tottenham
Court Road. Two were gentlemen; the third, of the class and appearance
of those who more habitually halt at old bookstalls.

'"Look," said one of the gentlemen to the other; "I have discovered here
what I have searched for in vain the last ten years--the Horace of 1580,
the Horace of the Forty Commentators--a perfect treasury of learning,
and marked only fourteen shillings!"

'"Hush, Norreys," said the other, "and observe what is yet more worth
your study;" and he pointed to the third bystander, whose face, sharp
and attenuated, was bent with an absorbed, and, as it were, with a
hungering attention over an old worm-eaten volume.

'"What is the book, my lord?" whispered Mr. Norreys.

'His companion smiled, and replied by another question: "What is the man
who reads the book?"

'Mr. Norreys moved a few paces, and looked over the student's shoulder.
"'Preston's Translation of Boethius,' 'The Consolations of Philosophy,'"
he said, coming back to his friend.

'"He looks as if he wanted all the consolations philosophy could give
him, poor boy!"

       *       *       *       *       *

'When Mr. Norreys had bought the Horace, and given an address where to
send it, Harley (the second gentleman) asked the shopman if he knew the
young man who had been reading Boethius.

'"Only by sight. He has come here every day the last week, and spends
hours at the stall. When once he fastens on a book, he reads it
through."

'"And never buys?" said Mr. Norreys.

'"Sir," said the shopman, with a good-natured smile, "they who buy
seldom read. The poor boy pays me twopence a day to read as long as he
pleases. I would not take it, but he is proud."'

[202:A] It was in one of these alleys or tributaries that a lawyer's
clerk, returning from his office, carried home in triumph to Camden Town
a copy of Marlowe's 'Tragical History of Doctor Faustus,' 1663, which he
bought for 1s.

[217:A] Concerning the Hande and Starre, Fleet Street, and the renowned
Richard Tottell, 'printer by special Patentes of the bokes of the Common
Lawe in the several Reigns of King Edw. VI. and of the quenes Marye and
Elizabeth,' it may be pointed out that this house, 7, Fleet Street,
exists as before, the only modern addition being the half-brick front
which was placed there more than a hundred years ago. Jaggard, the
bookseller, lived there after Tottell, and from thence he issued the
first edition of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet,' actually printed in
the rear (now Dick's Coffee-house), and the possibility of Shakespeare
having often called to correct the proof-sheets is conjured up. The
house was in turn occupied by many eminent law publishers and
booksellers, and of late years by the late Mr. Henry Butterworth, who
became himself the Queen's law publisher.

[237:A] One of the reviewers of Nichols' 'Literary Anecdotes' says: 'How
often have we seen him standing betwixt these, bidding "his friends
good-morrow with a cheerful face," and pulling down his ruffles, already
too long, till they covered his fingers. Davies had, even while in
common conversation, as much of the old school of acting in his manner
as his friend Gibson had upon the stage; though he is said not to have
been so pompous as Berry, to whose parts he succeeded; and Berry, in
this respect, was thought to have declined from Bridgewater.'

[237:B] Now covered by Charing Cross Hospital. At the commencement of
the third quarter of the sixteenth century, Thomas Colwell, a
bookseller, had a shop at the sign of 'St. John the Evangelist,' in St.
Martin's parish, near Charing-Cross, and a shop with the same sign in
Fleet Street, near the Conduit. It must be remembered that at this
period Holborn and Charing Cross were quite suburban villages, the
former noteworthy as the thoroughfare from Newgate to Tyburn, and the
latter as a sort of halfway place of stoppage between the City and
Westminster.

[241:A] Not quite so unprecedented as Mr. Dibdin thought. The _Grub
Street Journal_ of February 3, 1731, contained an entire page devoted to
the books advertisement of Tom Osborne, a much more remarkable feat, all
things considered, than Thorpe's.




[Illustration]

WOMEN AS BOOK-COLLECTORS.


IT seems a curiously contradictory fact that, although Englishwomen are
on the whole greater readers than men, they are, as book-collectors or
bibliophiles, an almost unknown quantity. In France this is not the
case, and several books have been published there on the subject of _les
femmes bibliophiles_. An analysis of their book-possessions, however,
leads one to the conclusion that with them their sumptuously-bound
volumes partake more of the nature of bijouterie than anything else.
Many of the earlier of these bibliophiles were unendowed with any keen
appreciation for intellectual pursuits, and they collected pretty books
just as they would collect pretty articles of feminine decoration. They
therefore form a little community which can scarcely be included in the
higher category of intellectual book-collectors. It would be much easier
to assert that Englishwomen differ from Frenchwomen in this respect than
it would be to back up the assertion with material proof. Indeed, after
all that could possibly be said in favour of our own countrywomen as
book-collectors, we fear that it would not amount to very much. It is
certain that our history does not afford any name of the first
importance, certainly none which can be classed with Anne of Austria
(wife of Louis XIII.), the Duchesse de Berry, Catherine de Médicis,
Christina of Sweden, Diane de Poitiers, the Comtesse Du Barry, Marie
Antoinette, the Marquise de Pompadour, or of at least a dozen others
whose names immediately suggest themselves. The only English name, in
fact, worthy to be classed with the foregoing is that of Queen
Elizabeth, who, in addition to her passion for beautiful books, may also
be regarded as a genuine book-lover and reader.

There were, however, Englishwomen who collected books long before
Elizabeth's time. In the year 1355, Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady of
Clare--the foundress of Clare Hall, Cambridge--bequeathed to her
foundation 'Deux bons antiphoners chexun ove un grayel (Gradule) en
mesme le volum, 1 bone legende, 1 bone messale, bien note, 1 autre
messale coverte de blank quir, 1 bone bible coverte de noir quir, 1
hugueion [? Hugh de Voræillis on the Decretals], 1 legende sanctorum, 1
poire de decretals, 1 livre des questions, et xxii quaires d'un livre
appella, De causa Dei contra Pelagianos.'

About seventy years after Elizabeth de Burgh's bequest, we learn that in
1424 the Countess of Westmoreland presented a petition to the Privy
Council representing that the late King Henry had borrowed from her a
book containing the Chronicles of Jerusalem and the Expedition of
Godfrey of Boulogne, and praying that an order might be issued under the
Privy Seal for the restoration of the said book. With much formality the
petition was granted. But we might go back several hundred years prior
to either of these dates, for the Abbess Eadburga not only transcribed
books herself and kept several scholars for a similar purpose, but fed
the bibliomaniacal zeal of Boniface, the Saxon missionary, by presenting
him with a number of books. Appropriately enough, he presented the
Abbess on one occasion with a silver pen.

Two historic illuminated manuscripts, formerly the property of
distinguished women, were sold from the Fountaine Collection at
Christie's, in July, 1894. The more interesting item was Henry VIII.'s
own copy of the 'Psalmes or Prayers taken out of Holye Scripture,'
printed on vellum, by Thomas Berthelet, 1544. This book is of great
historic interest. Shortly before his death he gave it to his daughter,
Princess Mary (afterwards Queen Mary), who subsequently presented it to
Queen Catherine Parr, with the following inscription: 'Madame, I shall
desyer yor grace most humbly to accepte thys ritde hande and unworthy
whose harte and servyce unfaynedly you shall be seur of duryng my lyf
contynually. Your most humble dowghter and servant, Marye.' On the back
of the leaf containing the foregoing inscription is written: 'Mors est
ingressus quidam immortalis future quæ tamen est maxime horribilis carni
Catherina Regina K. P.' On a small piece of vellum inside the cover the
King has written: 'Myne owne good daughter I pray you remember me most
hartely wen you in your prayers do shew for grace, to be attayned
assurydly to yor lovyng fader. Henry R.' This book contains quite a
number of other inscriptions by Henry, Catherine, and others, and is, on
the whole, of peculiarly striking interest. It was purchased by Mr.
Quaritch for 610 guineas. A beautiful companion to the foregoing is a
manuscript 'Horæ' of the fifteenth century, on very pure vellum,
consisting of 176 leaves (8-1/2 inches by 6 inches). This manuscript
formerly belonged to Margaret, mother of King Henry VII., and has at the
end this inscription, in her handwriting, addressed to Lady Shyrley, to
whom she presented it:

     'My good Lady Shyrley pray for
      Me that gevythe you thys booke,
      And hertely pray you (Margaret)
      Modyr to the kynge.'

Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, was the only daughter and heir
of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, and was not only distinguished for
her piety and charity, but was a great patron of Caxton, whose
successor, Wynkyn de Worde, styled himself 'Her printer.' This beautiful
manuscript was probably written and illuminated by her command in the
reign of her son, Henry VII. It realized £350.

[Illustration: _Queen Elizabeth's Golden Manual of Prayers._

Front Cover.]

For all practical purposes, Queen Elizabeth may be regarded as the first
distinguished _femme bibliophile_. Of this truculent and strong-minded
personage much has been written, and it is scarcely likely that there is
much unpublished material respecting her library. It is not necessary
nor desirable to enter exhaustively into even so fascinating a topic. A
few generalizations will not, however, be unwelcome. The books which she
possessed before she ascended the throne are excessively rare, and even
those owned by her after that event are by no means common. Elizabeth
herself embroidered several books with her own hands, the most beautiful
example of her work being a copy of the Epistles of St. Paul, now at the
Bodleian. The black silk binding is covered with devices embroidered by
the Princess during her sequestration at Woodstock, representing the
Judgment of Solomon and the Brazen Serpent, and these have been
reproduced by Dibdin in 'Bibliomania.' From an inventory published in
_Archæologia_ we learn that, in the sixteenth year of her reign, the
Queen possessed a book of the Evangelists, of which the covers were
decorated with a crucifix and with her arms in silver, weighing, with
the wood corners, 112 ounces. Among the books which the notorious Libri
'conveyed' were two which appear to have belonged to Elizabeth, first a
volume containing Fenestella's 'De Magistratibus Sacerdotusque
Romanorum' (1549), and another tract, which realized £5; and Jones's
'Arte and Science of Preserving Bodie and Soul in Healthe, Wisdome, and
Catholicke Religion' (1579), beautifully bound 'à petit fers,' which
realized close on £20.

[Illustration: _Queen Elizabeth's Golden Manual of Prayers._

Back Cover.]

The British Museum contains several books, including one or two very
beautiful ones, which were formerly the Queen's, and among these perhaps
the most notable is an imperfect copy of Coverdale's New Testament
(_circa_ 1538). Upon the inside of the cover is the following manuscript
note: 'This small book was once the property of Q. Elizabeth, and
actually presented by her to A. Poynts, who was her maid of Honor. In it
are a few lines of the Queen's own hand writing and signing. Likewise a
small drawing of King Edward the 6th when very young [of Windsor Castle]
and one of the Knights in his robes.' The 'few lines' of the Queen's are
as follows: 'Amonge good thinges | I prove and finde, the quiet | life
dothe muche abounde | and sure to the contentid | mynde, ther is no
riches | may be founde | your lovinge | mistress Elizabeth.' An
interesting point is raised in the _Library_ (ii. 65, 66), by Mr. W. G.
Hardy, relative to the books of the Earl of Essex, which were believed
to have become the property of Elizabeth after the unfortunate
favourite's execution in 1601. The finest as well as the best known of
the Queen's embroidered books, now in the British Museum, is Archbishop
Parker's 'De Antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ,' 1572, presented by the
author to Elizabeth, for whom also he had it specially bound. It is
covered in green velvet. We give facsimiles of the two sides of the
cover of the manual of prayers which the Queen is said to have carried
about with her, attached by a gold chain to her girdle. It is bound in
gold and enamelled, said to be the workmanship of George Heriot. The
prayers were printed by A. Barker, 1574. The front side of the cover
contains a representation of the raising of the serpent in the
wilderness; whilst on the back is represented the judgment of Solomon.
This book was for many years in the Duke of Sussex's collection; it was
sold with the rest of the collection of the late George Field, at
Christie's, June 13, 1893, for 1,220 guineas, to Mr. C. J. Wertheimer.

[Illustration: Elizabeth P.]

The Marquis of Salisbury's library at Hatfield contains a number of
books which belonged to two distinguished ladies of the Elizabethan
period. Lady M. Burghley's many book-treasures included a number of
learned works which we do not usually associate with the women of the
time. There were, for instance, Basil, 'Orationes,' 1556; Bodin, 'La
République,' 1580; Erasmus, 'De Copia Verborum,' 1573; Fernelius,
'Medecina,' 1554; Hemming, 'Commentarius in Ephesios,' 1574; Haddon,
'Contra Osorium,' 1557; Jasparus, 'Encomium,' 1546; Valerius, 'Tabulæ
Dialectices,' 1573; Velcurio, 'Commentarius in Aristotelis,' 1573;
Whitgift's 'Answer to Cartwright,' 1574, and several others. A few of
the books which were once possessed by Anne Cecil (sister of Sir Robert
Cecil), Countess of Oxford, are also at Hatfield, notably a 'Grammaire
Française,' 1559, and an edition of Cicero 'Epîtres Familières.'

[Illustration: _The Frontispiece to 'The Ladies' Library' of Steele._

Engraved by L. Du Guernier.]

During the eighteenth century, the taste for books was by no means
uncommon among women, although only a bold man would declare that that
period produced a genuine _femme bibliophile_. The idea of a lady's
library was first suggested by Addison in the _Spectator_, No. 37. In
No. 79 Steele takes up the thread of the subject, to which Addison
returns in No. 92, and Steele again in No. 140. These papers created a
want which Richard Steele, with a doubly benevolent object, essayed to
fill. 'The Ladies' Library,' ostensibly 'written by a lady,' and
'published by Mr. Steele,' was issued by Jacob Tonson in 1714. It was in
three volumes, each of which had a separate dedication; the first is
addressed to the Countess of Burlington, the second to Mrs. Bovey, a
learned and very beautiful widow, by some supposed to be identical with
Sir Roger de Coverley's obdurate _veuve_, whilst the third, in a strain
of loyal and affectionate eulogy, is to Steele's own wife, who may be
supposed to be depicted in Du Guernier's frontispiece in the first
volume. The 'Ladies' Library' and the _Spectator_ papers assist us
somewhat in forming an opinion as to the most popular books among the
ladies of the earlier part of the last century. The library of the lady
whom Addison visited is described as arranged in a very beautiful order.
'At the end of the folios (which were finely bound and gilt) were great
jars of china, placed one above the other, in a very noble piece of
architecture. The quartos were separated from the octavos by a pile of
smaller vessels, which rose in a delightful pyramid. The octavos were
bounded by tea dishes of all shapes, colours and sizes. . . . That part
of the library designed for the reception of plays and pamphlets was
inclosed in a kind of square, consisting of one of the prettiest
grotesque works that ever I saw, and made up of scaramouches, lions,
monkeys, and a thousand odd figures in chinaware. In the midst of the
room was a little Japan table, with a quire of gilt paper upon it, and
on the paper a silver snuff-box fashioned in the shape of a little
book.' On the upper shelves Addison noticed the presence of a number of
other counterfeit volumes, all the classic authors, and a set of the
Elzevir first editions in wood, only the titles meant to be read. Among
the books Addison mentions are Virgil, Juvenal, Sir Isaac Newton's
works, Locke on 'Human Understanding,' a spelling-book, a dictionary for
the explanation of hard words, Sherlock on 'Death,' 'The Fifteen
Comforts of Matrimony,' Father Malebranche's 'Search after Truth,' 'A
Book of Novels' [? Mrs. Behn's], 'The Academy of Compliments,' 'Clelia,'
'Advice to a Daughter,' 'The New Atalantis' (with key), a Prayer-book
(with a bottle of Hungary water by the side of it), Dr. Sacheverel's
speech, Fielding's Trial, Seneca's 'Morals,' Taylor's 'Holy Living and
Dying,' and La Ferte's 'Instruction for Country Dances,' etc.

[Illustration:

     ELIZABETH PINDAR.

     God's providence is mine
       inheritance.

     Elizabeth Pindar me jure
       possidet.

     Anno Dom.
     1608]

The list is a quaint bit of Addisonian satire, almost worthy to rank by
the side of Sir Roger de Coverley. Addison had no very elevated opinion
of the intellectual gifts of his women contemporaries, as the
juxtaposition of the Prayer-book with the bottle of Hungary waters (a
popular stimulating perfume of the day) shows. The books above named
were at that time to be found in nearly every gentleman's library, and
that they should be found in the possession of women is not surprising.
Addison's 'intellectual lady' and her library are a fiction, but a
charming fiction withal. In spite of the literary glories of her reign,
'Glorious Anna' can scarcely be regarded as a book-collector. Queen
Caroline, the consort of George II., was an enthusiastic bibliophile.
Her library was preserved until recently in a building adjoining the
Green Park, called the Queen's Library, and subsequently the Duke of
York's. An interior view of the building is given in Pyne's 'Royal
Residences.' We give on page 267 a reproduction of one of the earliest
English bookplates engraved for a lady. It was discovered a few years
ago in a volume of title-pages collected by John Bagford, and now in the
British Museum. Of Elizabeth Pindar as a book-collector, or, indeed, as
anything else, we are without any record.

[Illustration: _The Eshton Hall Library._]

The present century has produced two of the most distinguished _femmes
bibliophiles_ which this country has ever known. The earlier collector,
Miss Richardson Currer (1785-1861), of Eshton Hall, in the Deanery of
Craven, York, was the owner of an exceedingly rich library of books. Of
these, two catalogues were printed. The first, in 1820, under the
superintendence of Robert Triphook, extended to 308 pages; the second
was drawn up by C. J. Stewart in 1833. That of the latter included four
steel engravings of her library. This library was especially strong in
British history, and it included a copy on vellum of the St. Albans
reprint of Caxton's 'Chronicle' (wanting only the last leaf), which
realized £365 at her sale; of Higden's 'Polychronicon,' printed by
Caxton, 1482 (not quite perfect); one of the most perfect copies of
Coverdale's Bible, 1535, which sold for £250; of Norden's 'Voyage
d'Egypte,' on large paper, and many other fine books. It was also rich
in natural science, topography, and antiquities. Dibdin describes her as
'at the head of all the female collectors of Europe.' Miss Currer, who
suffered from deafness, was an intimate friend of Richard Heber, and it
was rumoured at one time that this distinguished bibliomaniac was
engaged to be married to Miss Currer, but the event did not transpire.
Miss Currer's books were sold at Sotheby's in July and August, 1862, and
realized nearly £6,000, the 2,681 lots occupying ten days in selling.
Miss Currer was great-niece of Dr. Richardson, whose correspondence was
edited by Dawson Turner in 1835. Two of the views of Miss Currer's fine
library in Stewart's catalogue are reproduced by Dibdin in his 'Literary
Reminiscences.'

Before passing on to the second famous lady book-collector--Mrs. John
Rylands--a few more or less important names may be mentioned in
connection with the subject. In August, 1835, Evans sold the 'valuable'
library of the late Dowager Lady Elcho, but as her books were mixed with
other properties, it is not now possible to distinguish one from the
other. Lady Mark Sykes' musical library was sold at Puttick's in March,
1847, and eleven months later Sotheby sold some valuable books and books
of prints, the property of a Miss Hamlet. H.R.H. the Princess Elizabeth,
Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg, and daughter of George III., was a
confirmed book-collector, and her library, divided into 1,606 lots, came
under the hammer at Sotheby's in April, 1863. It occupied four days in
disposal, and realized £915 12s. 6d. The books, which were chiefly in
elegant bindings, were for the most part illustrated works, illuminated
manuscripts, and books dealing with a very wide variety of topics;
whilst many of them had an extraneous value from the fact that they
contained signatures and interesting notes of the Princess and other
members of the Royal Family. The libraries of the late Lady Francis
Vernon Harcourt (August, 1873); of the late Mrs. Ellis, of Bernard
Street, Russell Square (November, 1871); and of the late Miss Beckles
(December, 1868), have been dispersed at Sotheby's. Lady Morgan's
library, comprising the principal works in French, English, and Italian
literature, and many scarce and curious books relating to Irish
history--many of the books had the owner's autograph--was sold at the
same place in April, 1863, but the 396 lots only realized £70. The
library of another literary woman, Miss Agnes Strickland, the historian
of the Queens of England, was dispersed at the same place in May, 1876,
when a few hundred books realized £60. Some very choice books (many of
them enriched with the notes of H. T. Buckle) were included in the
portion of the library of the late Mrs. Benzon, of 10, Kensington Palace
Gardens, sold at Sotheby's on June 14, 1880, when 379 lots realized
over £775. Some books from Mrs. Jameson's library were sold at Puttick's
in October, 1882, the more important items being annotated or
extra-illustrated copies of her own books. The collection formed by Miss
Drummond, of Berkeley Square, Bristol, and sold at Sotheby's in May,
1862 (1,339 lots realizing £1,316 6s.), was a remarkably choice library,
the whole in elegant bindings, presenting a great variety of patterns,
tooled in gold, with appropriate devices and other decorations. There
were splendid 'Galleries,' and books of 'picturesque sceneries,'
magnificent volumes on natural history, some beautiful Persian
manuscripts, and the best works in standard literature. Mrs. Brassey, of
Lower Seymour Street, had some good books, which were sold by Bates on
December 23, 1814, and included 'The Golden Legend,' by Caxton, which
realized 93 guineas.

Mrs. John Rylands is the widow of the late Mr. John Rylands, of Longford
Hall, near Manchester. Mrs. Rylands' career as a _femme bibliophile_ may
be briefly summarised thus: In 1889 this lady formed the plan of
erecting in Manchester a memorial to her late husband, which should
embody one main purpose of his life, as carried out by him very
unostentatiously, but with great delight, during the greater part of his
career. To make the highest literature accessible to the people was with
him a cherished aim, and it was accordingly resolved by his widow that
the memorial should be in the form of a library. To this end Mrs.
Rylands took into her confidence four gentlemen whose names are well
known, and for whom the late Mr. Rylands had the greatest respect and
admiration, namely, the Rev. Dr. S. G. Green, of London; the late Rev.
Dr. MacFadyen, of Manchester; Mr. W. Carnelly and Mr. W. Linnell, both
also of Manchester, with whose aid the preliminaries for carrying out
her purpose were speedily arranged. The site in Deansgate, lying between
Wood Street and Spinningfield, was purchased, and after visits to
several great libraries and other public buildings, Mrs. Rylands
instructed the architect of Mansfield College, Oxford, Mr. Basil
Champneys, of London, to execute plans for a suitable structure, to bear
the name of the John Rylands Library. About the same time she commenced
the purchase of books, being aided in this by her friend, Mr. J. Arnold
Green, son of the Rev. Dr. Green, who, putting himself in communication
with various agents, collected a large number of standard books in
English and foreign literatures, including early Bibles, first editions,
and many other rare and valuable works, with several choice manuscripts
and autographs. The number of volumes purchased reached many thousands,
one of the acquisitions being the celebrated copy of the 'Biblia
Pauperum,' once belonging to the Borghese Library in Rome, at the sale
of which it fetched 15,800 francs. Up to this time a considerable amount
had been spent. When the announcement was made in 1892 that Earl
Spencer, the owner of the Althorp Library, was willing to dispose of
that famous collection, Mrs. Rylands at once felt that its possession
would be the crown of her whole scheme--accomplishing it with a
completeness of which she never dreamed when first she formed her plans.
Mr. Arnold Green accordingly at once communicated on her behalf with Mr.
Railton, of Messrs. Sotheran and Co., a firm which had been largely
employed by her in previous purchases of books. The result is that the
Althorp Library passed into Mrs. Rylands' possession, the price paid
being close on a quarter of a million sterling. The transaction is by
far the largest of its kind which has ever taken place in this or any
other country. It has been calculated that the Althorp Library cost its
founder about £100,000, and that it should have more than doubled in
value in less than a century is an extremely gratifying fact. It
contains a large number of unique and excessively rare books, which
nothing short of an upheaval in this country similar to the French
Revolution could place on the market. Those who depend upon such a
contingency to obtain a few of these splendid books are likely to wait
for a very long time.

But even with the striking examples of Miss Currer and Mrs. Rylands
before us, the conclusion still forces itself upon one that the _femme
bibliophile_ is an all but unknown quantity. The New Woman may develop
into a genuine book-lover; it is certain that the old one will not. The
Chinese article of belief that women have no souls has, after all,
something in its favour.

Bookstall-keepers have a deep contempt for women who patronize them by
turning over their books without purchasing. It would not be possible to
repeat all the hard things they say about the sex. In the words of one:
'They hang around and read the books, and though I have a man to watch
them, while he is driving away one another is reading a chapter. They
can read a chapter in a minute.' 'Does that not interest them in the
book, so that they buy it?' asked an interlocutor. 'No, sir; it don't.
It only makes them go to the other stall and read the last chapter
there. Not once in a blue moon, sir, does womenfolk buy a book. A penny
weekly is what they buy, and before they fix on one they read half a
dozen. You take my word for it, sir, it takes a woman half an hour to
spend a penny at a bookstall.' A characteristic incident once happened
to an old judge's clerk who had a stall a few years ago in Gray's Inn
Road. A lady, with whom there were two or three children, after waiting
about the pavement, at length suddenly became interested in the humble
bookstall. Several pretty picture-books attracted the attention of the
children, and they became clamorous to possess them. The stall-keeper,
in the politest possible manner, offered the books at her own price. The
reply was: 'Oh no, thanks. We are only looking over the books to kill
time.' 'Much obliged to you, ma'am, for your kindness and
consideration,' was the prompt reply.

[Illustration]




[Illustration]

BOOK THIEVES, BORROWERS, AND KNOCK-OUTS.


'FACILIS descensus Averni' might well be the motto for any article or
chapter dealing with the above comprehensive 'avocations.' Once started
on his career, the book-thief may be regarded as entirely lost. At the
Middlesex Sessions a few years ago a genius of the name of Terry was
sentenced to six years' imprisonment for stealing books. On inquiry it
was found that this same person had already been in prison six times,
two terms of eighteen months each, one term of five years' penal
servitude, and another of seven years, all for stealing books.

Each thief has his own special _modus operandi_, which he varies
according to circumstances. There are those who do it without any
adventitious aid, and those who cover their sin with various
accessories. First, the ordinary book-thief, who watches his opportunity
when the shopkeeper is not looking, and simply slips the book quickly
under his coat and departs. This method is plain and simple in
execution, but sometimes dangerous in practice. Then there is the man
who wears an overcoat, the lining of the pocket of which he has
previously removed, so that he can pass his hand right through while
apparently only standing still looking on, with his hands quietly in his
pocket, possibly with one hand openly touching something, whilst the
other is earning his dinner.

[Illustration: '_Earning his Dinner._']

An amusing incident was once the experience of a London bookseller.
While sitting behind his counter inside the shop, he was amazed one day
at seeing a man running at a tremendous rate, and, momentarily
slackening his speed to seize a book off the stall, he had disappeared
before the astounded bookseller was able to get to the door. And it is
remarkable that, though many people were about, no one seems to have
noticed the thief take the book, though they saw him running. Another
favourite device is to carry a newspaper in the hand, and when no one is
looking deposit the paper on a carefully-selected book within the folds;
or having an overcoat carried on the arm to quickly hide something
under cover of it. This latter method requires, of course, a
well-to-do-looking man, and obviously is chiefly confined to the
stealers of the higher class of valuable books. It also requires, like
every well-managed business, a certain amount of capital, for it is
absolutely necessary--in order to lull suspicion--that small purchases
should be made from time to time in the hunting-ground that has been
chosen for the season.

[Illustration: _The King's Library, British Museum._]

Then there is the mean man who, having money, is yet lacking in the will
to spend it. Such individuals in these days of disguising bad deeds
under grand names are euphemistically designated kleptomaniacs. Most
London booksellers have had experience of this class. It is a known fact
that a literary man whose name is familiar to many readers was expelled
from the reading-room of the British Museum for this sort of conduct,
stealing small trifling things that could easily have been bought, and
mutilating other books by cutting out passages which he was too lazy to
transcribe, and too mean, although a well-to-do man, to employ an
amanuensis.

'Steal?' quoth ancient Pistol. 'Foh! a fico for the phrase. Convey the
wise it call.' Had Pistol lived in these days he would have said,
'Kleptomania the wise it call.' Some years ago there resided in the
West End of London a Belgian gentleman well known in literary circles,
and a man of good position to boot. He possessed a valuable library, and
was a frequent visitor at shops where he could add to his collections.
One dealer noticed that, whenever Monsieur Y. called upon him, one or
two valuable books mysteriously disappeared, and he was not long before
he arrived at the conclusion that his Belgian customer appropriated his
wares without attending to the customary, but disagreeable, process of
exchanging the coin of the realm for his bargains. Our friend the
dealer, an honest but remarkably plain-spoken and fearless individual,
made careful notes of all his losses and their prices.

One day he stopped Monsieur Y. just as he was leaving the shop, and
remarked that he might as well pay for the little volumes he had stowed
away in the pockets of the capacious overcoat he almost invariably wore.
Great was the assumed indignation of the Belgian bibliophile, who
asserted that he had no books on him but those he had already accounted
for. 'Come, come,' said the dealer, 'that won't do; I left you alone in
the room upstairs, but I watched you through the door, and saw you
pocket the books, of which the price is so much. Unless you pay for them
I shall send for a policeman; and whilst I am on the topic you may as
well settle for those other books you have taken from my shelves at
various times.' Here he produced his list, with the prices all affixed,
and a certain small sum added by way of interest. Hereupon Monsieur Y.
stormed and raved, swore it was an attempt to extort money from him, and
threatened legal proceedings. 'If,' said the dealer, 'you can empty your
pockets now without producing any book of mine, except those you have
paid for, I will withdraw my claim and apologize, otherwise I shall at
once send my man' (whom he then called) 'for a policeman.' Whereupon
Monsieur Y. paid the full claim, walked out of the shop, and never
entered it again. But the catalogues were regularly sent to him, and as
the dealer constantly had books that he required, he ordered what he
wanted by post, so that in the long-run the bookseller really lost
little or nothing by his boldness. The same bookseller complained that
people often ordered his books but neglected to pay for them, whilst
intending purchasers who meant to pay ready money, and called at the
shop for the books, had to be sent away disconsolate, sometimes after
having come long distances to secure the long-wished-for volume. 'But
first come, first served, is my motto, and if six orders come for the
same book, it goes to the man whose letter or card I first receive.' A
sturdy John Bull sort of man this, with a great knowledge of books, who
has had to fight a long uphill battle, and is perhaps one of the
best-known men in the trade.

An awkward incident for the thief happened once. A bookseller, the
proprietor of two or three shops, was in one of them, when a person
entered and offered for sale a couple of books. The proprietor
recognised one of them as being his property, he having that morning
sent it to the other of his shops, from which it had been apparently
almost immediately removed. When questioned, the intending vendor
pretended to be much insulted, and asserted the book had been in his
possession for some considerable time, and even threatened the
bookseller, when he insisted on detaining the book, with the police.
This was rather unfortunate, for at that moment a constable passing by
was called in, and, in spite of a great deal of bluster and many
threats, the thief was marched off to the nearest police-station. The
other book, it was found, had also been stolen that morning from another
shop, and the result was four months' imprisonment.

The remarkable fact is that book-thieves are nearly always well-to-do
people; if hunger induced them to steal a book to get a dinner, they
would come in the category of ordinary thieves. If they stole books
because they wanted to read them, and were unable to pay for them, one
might overlook their crime. One of the most remarkable illustrations of
the past few years is that in which an ex-lieutenant in the Royal Scots
Greys was implicated. The books belonged to a lady who had let her house
to the prisoner's father. She left a number of books, which were in
three bookcases. They were locked, and contained valuable books. She was
informed (so runs the report) that several of the books were missing,
and a few weeks after she saw a number of books, including Ruskin's
'Stones of Venice' and 'Modern Painters,' which she identified as her
property. The law was put into motion, and the case came into the
courts. The value of the two books mentioned she estimated at £60, and
the other books at £50. Mr. Reeves, bookseller, then of 196, Strand,
deposed that he could identify the prisoner, and on June 21 he purchased
five volumes of Ruskin's 'Modern Painters,' and gave a cheque for £16.
He understood that the accused had come into possession of them through
a death. On that occasion the prisoner asked the witness what he would
give for three volumes of 'The Stones of Venice.' Witness offered him
£9. On June 28 the prisoner brought the book, and finding it not to be
in such good condition, witness offered him £7 10s. This was accepted,
and witness handed a cheque to the prisoner for that amount. Witness
bought other books from the prisoner for £3 2s. 6d. Mr. Reeves said that
he sold 'Modern Painters' for £18, and 'The Stones of Venice' for £8
10s.

Here is another illustration, gleaned from the Greenwich Police Court: A
person, forty-six, of ladylike appearance, and no occupation, was
charged at Greenwich with stealing a book, valued 4d., from outside the
shop of Charles Humphreys, 114, South Street. She was seen to take a
book from a stall, place it in a novelette, and walk away. Prosecutor
followed, stopped her, and said, 'I've got you now.' She cried out, 'Oh,
for God's sake, don't, don't! Let me pay for it.' But he said, 'No, not
for £5, as you are an old thief.' At her house he found over a hundred
books bearing his private mark, but he could not swear that they had not
been bought. Once he bought some books from the prisoner which she had
stolen from his shop, but he did not know that when he bought them.
Prisoner pleaded guilty to stealing one book, and on her behalf a
solicitor produced a certificate from a medical man, stating that she
was suffering from general weakness of system, loss of appetite,
sleeplessness, and evident mental disorder. Those symptoms he attributed
to causes which induced the magistrate to deal leniently, and a fine of
£5 was imposed.

[Illustration: '_Steals a book, places it in a novelette, and walks
away._']

About a couple of years ago, two maiden sisters, Grace and Blanche ----,
were charged at Bow Street with theft. To all appearances they were
highly respectable members of the community. Grace was seventy-four;
Blanche had only seen sixty summers. They visited Shoolbred's,
apparently wanting to buy some Prayer-books and Bibles. They looked at
many, but none suited them. They left without purchasing anything, no
suspicions being aroused on the part of the attendants. But Detective
Butler and Constable 173 D, who had taken great interest in the old
ladies' movements, saw Grace hand a Book of Common Prayer, a hymn-book,
and ladies' companion to her sister. Shoolbred's manager identified the
articles as the property of the firm, but declined to prosecute on
account of the old ladies' ages. Grace admitted the theft, but said she
did not know what she was doing. A small fine was inflicted.

Even so astute a tradesman as Bernard Quaritch has been victimized by
the book-thief. These are his own words: 'A little dark man, of about
forty-five years of age, with a sallow complexion, apparently a Dutch or
German Jew, speaking in broken English in an undertone, introduced
himself, showing me a business card, "Wunderlich and Co." The following
day the pretended Wunderlich selected books from my stock to the amount
of £270, and said he would come again and select more. At the same time
the little dark, sallow man saw, but refused to buy, a very sweet little
"Livre d'Heures," with lovely miniatures in _camaïeu-gris_, bound in
black morocco, with silver clasp. The price of this lovely MS. was 50
guineas. Since then this mysterious little dark man has disappeared, and
my very sweet little "Livre d'Heures," with its lovely miniatures, has
disappeared also.'

In 1891 Messrs. Sotheran and Co. discovered that a number of rare books
had been abstracted from their Strand shop, including a first edition of
Burns's 'Poems,' 1786; Shakespeare's 'Poems,' 1640, first edition, with
portrait by Marshall, and eleven extra leaves at the end; Heywood's
'Thyestes of Seneca,' 1560; and Piers Plowman's 'Vision and Crede,'
1561--all choice volumes. The Burns was valued at £30, and this was
traced a month or two after its sudden disappearance to a bookbinder,
who offered it to Mrs. Groves, who, however, wisely declined to lend
money on it. Subsequently the book was sent to Mr. Pearson, Exmouth,
who, knowing it had been stolen, at once communicated with the
prosecutors. Two of the other books were traced to New York, and were
returned to the firm at cost price. The enterprising bookbinder received
twelve months' hard.

Mr. Waller, the bookseller, formerly of Fleet Street, relates a rather
amusing incident connected with Thackeray: 'I think it was a book of
"Services" in four small volumes, two of which he already possessed, and
one, completing the set, he saw in my window. He came in, said he wanted
that book, and gleefully told how he had picked up the third a few
minutes before in Holywell Street. He dived into his pocket to show me
his precious "find." It was not there! Between Holywell Street and Fleet
Street someone had relieved him of it, in the belief, apparently, that
it was an ordinary pocket-book with valuables in it!'

[Illustration: '_He had placed the book in his pocket. Someone had
relieved him of it._']

A by no means uncommon person is what may be described as the
conscientious thief, or the man who steals one book and replaces it by
another, which he considers to be of equal value. But a much cleverer
dodge was that of a wily villain who selected a book from the stock of a
firm of booksellers in the Strand, asking one member of the firm to
charge it to him, and then selling it to the other partner at the
opposite end of the shop a few minutes later! This can scarcely be
described as book-stealing, for there is no proof that the 'book-lover'
did not intend paying for the article ultimately. In this case the
assumption was distinctly against his doing anything of the sort.

It will be seen from the foregoing facts that the book-thief hesitates
at no class of book. But would he draw the line at stealing a book which
deals with thieves? The late Charles Reade appears to have thought that
he would not, for he has inscribed not only his name, but the following
somewhat plaintive request, 'Please not to steal this book; I value it,'
in a volume which Mr. Menken once possessed. The book in question is
entitled 'Inventaire général de L'Histoire des Larrons,' Rouen, 1657.
This singular work gives at length the stratagems, tricks, and
artifices, the thefts of and assassinations by thieves, with a full
account of their most memorable exploits in France. One cannot help
wondering if a copy of this extraordinary book has ever been stolen from
a book-collector, and of the remorse which must have overtaken the thief
when he discovered the character of his prize. That indeed would be a
strange irony!

But the book-thief is not by any means one of the numerous penalties of
modern civilization. He has an antiquity which almost makes him
respectable. Hearne, in his 'Johannes Glastoniensis,' states that Sir
Henry Saville once wrote a warning letter to Sir Robert Cotton, who had
offered some additions to the library of the founder of the Bodleian. An
appointment had been made with Sir Robert to give Bodley an opportunity
of inspecting the treasures on his shelves, and it was in anticipation
of this that Saville thought it his duty to warn his friend in the
following terms: 'And remember I give you faire warning that if you hold
any booke so deare as that you would bee loath to have him out of your
sight, set him aside beforehand.' On the authority of the above extract,
Gough has charged Bodley with being a suspicious character--or, in other
words, a thief; but the complete letter puts a very different complexion
on the extract. He tars with the same brush Dr. Moore, Bishop of Ely,
Dr. Rawlinson, and his friend Umfreville. In connection with the
first-named, Gough repeats an anecdote which crops up every now and then
as authentic, for these half-truths have an extraordinary vitality. The
anecdote runs as follows: 'A gentleman calling on a friend who had a
choice library, found him unusually busy in putting his best books out
of sight; upon asking his view in this, he answered, "Don't you know
that the Bishop of Ely dines with me to-day?"' There can be only one
inference, of course. As a matter of fact, we do not believe that there
is any truth in either rumour. So far as Dr. Moore, 'the Father of
Black-letter Collectors,' is concerned, there can be no doubt that he
had a fairly elastic conscience in the matter of book-collecting. He is
said to have collected his library by plundering those of the clergy of
his diocese, justifying himself by the cynical remark, _Quid illiterati
cum libris?_ We do not vouch for the truth of this anecdote, any more
than for the graver charge, but probably there is some foundation for
it. In the Harleian MSS. there is an interesting account of the several
libraries, public and private, which existed in London during the
earlier part of the last century. From this source we learn that 'in the
days of Edward VI., in the chapel adjoining to the Guildhall, called my
Lord Maiors Chapell, was a library well furnisht, being all MSS. Stow
says the Duke of Somerset borrowed them, with a design never to return
them, but furnisht his own study in his pompous house in the Strand;
they were five cartloads.'

Horace Walpole expressed his opinion to the effect that virtuosi have
been long remarked to have little conscience in their favourite
pursuits. A man will steal a rarity, who would cut off his hand rather
than take the money it is worth. Yet in fact the crime is the same. He
tells us of a 'truly worthy clergyman, who collects coins and books. A
friend of mine mentioning to him that he had several of the Strawberry
Hill editions, this clergyman said, "Aye, but I can show you what it is
not in Mr. Walpole's power to give you." He then produced a list of the
pictures in the Devonshire, and other two collections in London, printed
at my press. I was much surprised. It was, I think, about the year 1764,
that, on reading the six volumes of "London and its Environs," I ordered
my printer to throw off one copy for my own use. This printer was the
very man who, after he had left my service, produced the noted copy of
Wilkes's "Essay on Woman." He had stolen one copy of this list; and I
must blame the reverend amateur for purchasing it of him, as it was like
receiving stolen goods.'

The number of book-thieves has increased with the extension of public
(or free) libraries. Here, the accumulated ingenuity of the literary
thief has an ample scope, and he is not the man to let an opportunity
escape. Some of the tribe have a mania for old directories; but novels
are the most popular. The clerical thief with a thirst for sermons and
theological literature is a by no means infrequent customer--and truly
the indictment of a thief of this description ought to bear the fatal
endorsement continued almost up to our own times, _sus. per coll._--'let
him be hanged by the neck.'

At one time nearly all the volumes in the very useful Bohn's Library
series were kept in the Reading-room of the British Museum, but they so
frequently disappeared that the authorities decided upon their permanent
sequestration to a less handy part of the building. Last year Mr. C.
Trice Martin's new 'Record Interpreter' was so highly appreciated both
at the Record Office and at the Reading-room, that the copy at each
institution was stolen from the shelves within twenty-four hours of its
being placed there.

Women more or less respectably dressed are often objects of suspicion to
public librarians; they are also a class infinitely more difficult to
deal with than men, for, whilst the receptivity of their cloaks is
infinite, their 'feelings' have to be considered. Whether guilty or
innocent, the suspected party is bound to create a 'scene,' probably
hysterics--and what is a public librarian, or, indeed, any other man, to
do under such circumstances?

Libri was unquestionably the most accomplished and wholesale book-thief
that ever lived. As Inspector-General of French Libraries under Louis
Philippe, he had special facilities for helping himself--his known
thefts have been valued at £20,000. We mention him here because his
collections were sold at Sotheby's in 1860. One of the most interesting
illustrations of this man's depredations was exposed in 1868, when Lord
Ashburnham issued a translation of the Pentateuch from a Latin MS. which
had been purchased by a previous holder of the title from Libri, who
sold it under the condition that it was not to be published for twenty
years. It had been stolen in 1847 from the Lyons Library, and the clause
in the agreement, therefore, is easily understood. Libri evidently was
not one of those whom Jules Janin describes as 'people who don't think
it thieving to steal a book unless you sell it afterwards.'

Unfortunately, education has knocked all the virtue out of charms and
incantation. Madame de Genlis is said to have fenced the greater part of
her library with the following lines:

     'Imparibus meritis pendent tria corpora ramis;
      Dismas, et Gesmas, media est Divina Potestas;
      Alta petit Dismas, infelix infima Gesmas.
      Nos et res nostras conservet Summa Potestas!--
      Hos versus dicas, ne tu furto tua perdas.'

Quite a long chapter could be made up of the doggerel rhymes frequently
made use of in bygone days in which the prospective thief was warned off
under penalties of a prison, or even of a worse end. Here is one:

     'Si quisquis furetur
        This little Libellum
      Per Phoebum, per Jovem,
        I'll kill him--I'll fell him--
      In ventrem illius
        I'll stick my scalpellum,
      And teach him to steal
        My little Libellum.'

And here is another:

     'Qui ce livre volera,
        Pro suis criminibus
      Au gibet il dansera,
        Pedibus pendentibus.'

A curious and interesting chapter in the history of book-stealing is
furnished us by Mr. F. S. Ellis. 'Some thirty years since I was talking
with Mr. Hunt, for many years Town Clerk of Ipswich, who was an ardent
book-collector, and in the course of conversation he lamented how some
ten years previously he had missed an opportunity of buying a first
edition of "Paradise Lost" under the following circumstances. There was
a sale in the neighbourhood of Ipswich, in which a number of books were
included. These were all tied in bundles and catalogued simply as so
many books in one lot. Going over one of these bundles, what was his
surprise to find a first edition of "Paradise Lost," with the first
title-page, and in the original sheepskin binding! He said nothing, but
went round to the auctioneer's house and asked him if he would be
willing to sell him a particular book out of the collection previous to
auction. "Oh, by all means," said the auctioneer; "just point me out the
volume and say what you are willing to give me for it, and you can take
it out at once." What was Mr. Hunt's chagrin and disappointment, on
again taking up the bundle, to find that the number of books was all
right according to the catalogue, but Milton's "Paradise Lost" had
disappeared. Someone with as keen an eye as the Town Clerk had also
discovered the jewel, and had put in practice the theory that exchange
is no robbery, and had substituted some other volume for the Milton
without going through the formality of a consultation with the
auctioneer. Not long after this, a "Paradise Lost," which I have every
reason to believe was _the_ "Paradise Lost" described above, in the
original sheepskin binding, and having the "first" title-page, was
offered for sale to Mr. Simpson, who carried on an old-book business for
Mr. Skeat, in King William Street, Strand. He purchased it for what in
those days was considered a high price; but how much it was below what
is now esteemed its value is witnessed by the fact that he offered it to
the late Mr. Crossley, of Manchester, and after much haggling sold it to
him for £12 12s. When Mr. Crossley had secured it, he quietly remarked,
"And now let me tell you that if you find a dozen more copies in similar
condition, I will give you the same price for every one." It remained in
Mr. Crossley's library for many years, and at the sale of his books in
1884 realized what was considered the very high price of £25. Eight
years after it had advanced to £120.'

The book-borrower is, perhaps, a greater curse than the thief, for he
simulates a virtue to which the latter makes no pretension. The
book-plate of a certain French collector bore this text from the parable
of the Ten Virgins: 'Go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for
yourselves.' 'Sir,' said a man of wit to an acquaintance who lamented
the difficulty which he found in persuading his friends to return the
volumes that he had lent them, 'Sir, your acquaintances find, I suppose,
that it is much more easy to retain the books themselves than what is
contained in them.' A certain wise physician took a gentle way of
reminding the borrower who dog-eared or tore the pages of his books:
pasted on the fly-leaf of each of his books is a printed tag, bearing
this legend: 'Library of Galen, M.D. "And if a man borrow aught of his
neighbour and it be hurt, he shall surely make it good," Exodus xxii.
14.' A much more effective plan is that described some time ago in the
_Graphic_ by Mr. Ashby Sterry. In all the books of a certain cunning
bibliophile he had the price written in plain figures; when anyone asked
him for the loan of a book he invariably replied, 'Yes, with pleasure,'
and, looking in the volume, further added, 'I see the price of this work
is £2 17s. 6d.'--or whatever the value might happen to be--'you may take
it at this figure, which will, of course, be refunded when the volume is
returned.' If a person really wished to read the volume he would of
course be glad to leave this deposit; and if he did not return it he
would not be altogether an unmitigated thief. Mr. John Ashton relates,
in his volume on the 'Wit, Humour, and Satire of the Seventeenth
Century,' a curious anecdote which may be here quoted: 'Master Mason, of
Trinity Colledge, sent his pupil to another of the Fellows to borrow a
Book of him, who told him, _I am loathe to lend my books out of my
chamber, but if it please thy Tutor to come and read upon it in my
chamber, he shall as long as he will._'

When Harrison Ainsworth was a youth and living at Manchester, he
contracted an enthusiastic admiration for Elia, to whom he sent some
curious books on loan. One of these was a black-letter volume entitled
'Syrinx or a sevenfold History, handled with a variety of pleasant and
profitable both comical and tragical Arguments,' etc., by W. Warner,
1597. Lamb replied, December 9, 1823: 'I do not mean to keep the book,
for I suspect you are forming a curious collection, and I do not
pretend to anything of the kind. I have not a black-letter book among
mine, old Chaucer excepted, and am not bibliomanist enough to like
black-letter. It is painful to read; therefore I must insist on
returning it, at opportunity, not from contumacy and reluctance to be
obliged, but because it must suit you better than me.' The copy of
Warner's 'Syrinx' Ainsworth had borrowed from Dr. Hibbert-Wade, and
therefore it was not the future novelist's book to give. Ignoring,
however, his expressed determination to return it, Elia lent the book to
another friend, who shortly after went to New York, and may have taken
the Warner with him, much to Dr. Hibbert-Wade's annoyance, of which he
did not, it is said, fail to let Harrison Ainsworth know. It appears,
however, to have returned again--indeed, it is probable that the book
never left England--for it is now in the Dyce Collection at South
Kensington, with 'Mr. Charles Lamb' written on one of the fly-leaves,
and Dyce's note, 'This rare book was given to me by Mr. Moxon after
Lamb's death.'

The ranks of London book-borrowers, as those of book-thieves, have
included a number of men eminent or distinguished in some particular
way. The Duke of Lauderdale was one of these. Evelyn tells us that he
was a dangerous borrower of other men's books, as the diarist knew to
his cost. Coleridge was a wholesale book-borrower, and the manner in
which he annotated the books of his friends caused much strong and deep
lamentation at the time. These 'annotated' books have now acquired a
very distinct commercial and literary value.

The _London Chronicle_ of December 3-5, 1767, contains a curious
advertisement, headed 'Book-Missing.' It goes on, 'Whereas there is
missing out of the late Dr. Chandler's Library the _fifth Volume of
Cardinal Pool's Letters_, and it is presumed that the said volume of
Letters was borrowed by some friend of the Doctor's; it is earnestly
requested by the Widow and Executrix of the said Dr. Chandler that
whoever is in possession of the said volume would be so kind as
immediately to send it to Mr. Buckland, Bookseller, Paternoster Row,
and the favour will be gratefully acknowledged.'

When Sir Walter Scott lent a book, he put in its place a wooden block
bearing the name of the borrower and the date of the loan. Charles Lamb,
tired of lending his books, threatened to chain Wordsworth's poems to
his shelves, adding, 'For of those who borrow, some read slow; some mean
to read, but don't read; and some neither read nor mean to read, but
borrow to give you an opinion of their sagacity. I must do my
money-borrowing friends the justice to say that there is nothing of this
caprice or wantonness of alienation in them. When they borrow money they
never fail to make use of it.'

Just as the difference between the book-thief and the book-borrower is
of too slight a nature to warrant independent chapters, so the hero who
indulges in the luxury of a 'knock-out' is more or less of a thief, and
this company is, essentially, a very proper place in which to find him.
A 'knock-out,' it may be briefly explained to the uninitiated, is a
system by which two or more booksellers--or, for the matter of that, any
other tradesmen--combine to procure certain books at a lower than normal
auction value. An American paper stated, some time ago, and among many
other remarkable things, that 'a private buyer cannot obtain a book by
auction in London at any price.' The extreme foolishness of such a
statement need not be enlarged upon in this place. That the knock-out
system does exist in London no one but a fool would deny. That it does
occur now and then at such places as Sotheby's, Christie's, Puttick and
Simpson's and Hodgson's, is without any manner of doubt, but not to any
extent worth mentioning. Where the system is in vogue is at sales held
in private houses, and at auction-rooms where books are not generally
sold. At such places books are usually knocked down at absurdly low
figures, until the private person steps in, when the prices begin to go
up with a bound; they then realize oftentimes figures far above those at
which they may be acquired at the shops. After the private bidder has
been excited into paying an excessive price for his lots, he realizes
that he is doing a foolish thing, and resigns the game into the hands of
the trade, when the prices again begin to assume their former very low
levels. The knock-out books are taken away by their nominal purchaser,
and in a convenient back parlour of some handy 'pub' they are put up
again for competition among the clique, when all profits realized are
thrown into a pool, and afterwards equally divided.

'The two books you commissioned me to get were knocked down at £1 15s.
and 10s. respectively,' said a bookseller to a well-known collector only
the other day; 'and if you insist upon having them at these prices, plus
the commission, you must have them. But as a matter of fact they cost me
£1 over and above the total of £2 5s.' The reply to the collector's
demand for an explanation was, 'Smith agreed to let me have these two
books if I did not oppose his bidding for the Fielding.' It is scarcely
necessary to say that the total cost, with the £1 thrown in, was much
below the original commission, whilst the Fielding ran up to
considerably over the price Smith intended to have given. By striking a
balance, the two cronies each obtained what he wanted. An arrangement of
this sort is nearly invariably the explanation of two extreme prices
being paid for equally good copies of one book in a single season.

In 1781 a portion of the library formed by Ralph Sheldon, of Weston,
Warwickshire, chiefly in the third quarter of the seventeenth century,
was sold at Christie's, but the auctioneer throughout appears to have
been victimized by the knock-out system. One of the lots, comprising a
large collection of scarce old plays in fifty-six volumes, quarto, was
knocked down to one bookseller for £5 5s.; he then passed it on to
another for £18, and the collection was sold on the spot to Henderson
the actor for £31 10s. At this same sale the English Bible, 1537,
realized 13s.; two copies of the Common Prayer Book, 1552, 8s.; the
First Folio Shakespeare, with two other books, £2 4s.; the 'Legenda
Aurea,' printed by Notary, 1503, 10s. 6d. It would not be difficult to
extend this list of illustrations, but perhaps one example is as good as
a hundred.

We may, appropriately enough, conclude this brief but sufficiently
lengthy notice of the knock-out system with an anecdote which shows
that, in this case, a 'knock-out' would have been justifiable. At a
certain famous book-sale a few years ago, a volume of no particular
interest, except that it contained the autograph of the Earl of
Derwentwater, was possibly worth £5. But the bidding was brisk, two of
the dealers being evidently bent on having the prize. To the
astonishment of everybody, the price went up to about 120 guineas, when
one of the dealers gave in. Taking the other man aside, he said, 'Who
have you been bidding for?' 'Mr. So-and-So.' 'So have I.' Another
illustration of the unexpected and incomprehensibly sudden rise in the
auction value of books is explained in the following extract of a letter
from Horace Walpole: 'I cannot conclude my letter without telling you
what an escape I had, at the sale of Dr. Mead's library, which goes
extremely dear. In the catalogue I saw Winstanley's "Views of Audley
End," which I concluded was a thin dirty folio, worth about fifteen
shillings. As I thought it might be scarce, it might run to two or three
guineas; however, I bid Graham _certainly_ buy it for me. He came the
next morning in a great fright, said he did not know whether he had done
right or very wrong; that he had gone as far as _nine and forty
guineas_. I started in such a fright! Another bookseller had, luckily,
as unlimited a commission, and bid fifty. I shall never give an
unbounded commission again.'

[Illustration]




[Illustration]

SOME HUMOURS OF BOOK-CATALOGUES.


AN interesting and curious pendant to Mr. H. B. Wheatley's 'Literary
Blunders' might be made up of the errors which have occurred from time
to time in booksellers' catalogues. These errors are sometimes
grotesquely amusing, and are perhaps as often attributable to the
ingenuity of the printer as to the ignorance of the cataloguer.
Booksellers usually content themselves with seeing one proof of their
catalogues, and as the variety of books dealt with is so great, it would
need at least half a dozen careful revisions to secure anything like
correctness. As a general rule, the catalogues of London booksellers are
exceptionally free of blunders, provincial compilers (notably one or two
in Birmingham) being far behind their Metropolitan rivals. The example
of

     'Mill, John S., On Liberty,
       "      "      On the Floss,'

is almost too well known to again bear repeating; the same may be said
of the instance in which Ruskin's 'Notes on the Construction of
Sheepfolds' was catalogued as a book for farmers, and of that in which
Swinburne's 'Under the Microscope' was classed among optical
instruments. The cross-reference of

     'God: _see_ Fiske, J.,'

is a gem of absent-mindedness. Here are four more gems which appeared in
the catalogue of a public library:

     'Aristophanes: The Clouds of the Greek Text.'
     'Boy's Own Annual: Magazine of Gymnastics.'
     'Swedenborg: Conjugal Love and its Opposite.'
     'Tiziano (Titian), Vicelli Da Cadore.'

The following is a good specimen of a bookseller's inspiration in
reference to the entry 'Bible--2 vols., 12mo., _Edin._, 1811' in his
catalogue: 'Sir Brunet and Dibdin in praise of this beautiful edition.
As most nearly approaching unimaculateness a better copy than the
present one could not be found.' This example is on a par with that in
which an early Missal is catalogued as an 'extremely rare old printing
and engraved work,' its author being 'Horæ B. V. Mariæ and usum
Romanum,' whilst it is stated to be bound by 'Chamholfen Duru,' whoever
he may be. Equally intelligent is another item from the same source,
'Newcastle (Marguis de Methode, etc.), oeuvre auquel on apprende,' etc.
Perhaps it was the cheapness--sixpence each--which prevented two items
from having fuller descriptions:

     'Horace, the Poems of, very interesting.'
     'Jokely, very interesting, 12 months.'

Perhaps '12 months' is the term of imprisonment which any bookseller
deserves for publishing such absurdities. Another gem in the way of
blunders is the following:

     'There's (Lord and Lady) Legends of the Library at Lilies,
        2 vols., 8vo., bds., 2s. 6d., 1832.'

The book catalogued in this puzzling manner is by Lord and Lady Nugent,
and is entitled 'Legends of the Library at Lilies [the Nugents'
residence], by the Lord and Lady thereof.' A similar carelessness
resulted in Sir Astley Cooper's 'Treatise on Dislocations,' 1822, being
catalogued as follows: 'Bart (C. A.), a Treatise on Discolourations and
Fractures of the Joints,' etc., and also of books by Sir James Y.
Simpson, Bart., as by 'Bart (S.)' and 'Bart (J.).' The following entries
speak for themselves:

     'Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Pottery.'
     'The New Wig Guide.'
     'The Rose and the Ring by R. Browing.'
     'Marryat's "Pirate and Three Butlers."'

Under 'Devil, The,' we find the following entry: 'Le Deuil sou
observation dans tous les Temps,' 1877; and under Numismatics the
following delightful bull: 'Money, a comedy, a poor copy, 1s.'

As an instance of official cataloguing, it would be difficult to beat
the following description of a familiar classic which appeared in a list
issued a few years ago (according to a writer in _Notes and Queries_) in
a certain presidency of India, 'by order of the Right Hon. the Governor
in Council':

  'Title--Commentarii (_sic_) De Bello Gallico in usum Scholarum,
      Liber Tirtius (_sic_).
  Author--Mr. C. J. Caesoris. Subject--Religion.'

Nichols, in his 'Literary Anecdotes' (iv. 493), mentions that Dr.
Taylor, who about the year 1732 was librarian at Cambridge, used to
relate of himself that one day throwing books in heaps for the purpose
of classing and arranging them, he put one among works on Mensuration,
because his eye caught the word _height_ in the title-page, and another
which had the word _salt_ conspicuous he threw among books on Chemistry
or Cookery. But when he began a regular classification, it appeared that
the former was 'Longinus on the Sublime,' and the other a 'Theological
Discourse on the _Salt_ of the World, that good Christians ought to be
seasoned with.' Thus, in a catalogue published about eighty years ago
the 'Flowers of Ancient Literature' are found among books on Gardening
and Botany, and Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy' is placed among works
on Medicine and Surgery. Some blundering bibliographer has classed the
'Fuggerarum Imagines,' the account of the once mighty Italian family,
among botanical works, under the 'Resemblance of Ferns.' Dibdin states
that he once saw the first Aldine Homer in a country bookseller's
catalogue described as 'a beautiful copy of the _Koraun_.' The Rev. John
Mitford sent to a Woodbridge bookseller for a copy of Shelley's
'Prometheus Unbound,' and received the answer that no copy of
'Prometheus' _in sheets_ could be obtained--a misconception which
Bernard Barton promptly forwarded to London, to Charles Lamb's great
content. We have heard of the following blunder, but have never actually
seen it:

     'SHELLEY--Prometheus, unbound,' etc.
     ' ----      ----   another copy, olive morocco,' etc.

The nearest approach to it occurred a few years ago in a Glasgow
auctioneer's catalogue: 'Lot 282, Sir Noel Paton's Illustrations,
Shelley's _Prometheus_, unbound, 12 plates, N.D.' As a matter of fact,
the copy was bound in cloth. 'Please send the ax relating to a justus
pease' is a phrase which will be remembered by readers of 'Guy
Mannering.' Only recently a post-card reached Messrs. Smith, Elder and
Co. requesting the immediate despatch of a copy of 'Hard on Horace,'
which was the inaccurate, or perhaps waggish, sender's rendering of the
'Hawarden Horace.' This will be remembered with the request for 'The
Crockit Minister,' by Stickett, and 'Sheep that Pass in the Night.' Some
of the foregoing budget can scarcely be placed to the discredit of the
cataloguer, but they are sufficiently _apropos_ to be included here.

The following amusing entry occurs in the sale catalogue of the library
of the late Mr. R. Montgomery, which was dispersed by auction at Antwerp
the other day: 'Plain or Ringlets? by Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate,
with illustrations by John Leech. London, s.d., 8{o} d. rel. dos et
coins chagr. rouge, tête dorée, figg. coloriées et noires.' Messrs.
Longmans had a letter a few weeks ago asking for a copy of 'Chips from a
German Workshop,' by Max Müller, for review in a trade paper dealing
with carpentering, etc.! This reminds one of the story of Edwardes, the
Republican bookseller of a century ago, who put a Government spy to
confusion by re-binding a Bible and giving it the seditious title, 'The
Rights of Man.' Burke's 'Thoughts on the French Revolution' was
advertised by him as 'The Gospel according to St. Burke.' Outside a
certain bookseller's shop, Mr. R. C. Christie once saw a book in six
duodecimo volumes, bound in dark antique calf, and lettered 'Calvini
Opera.' Knowing of no edition of the works of Calvin in that form, Mr.
Christie took down a volume, and found it was 'Faublas!' It was the
original edition in thirteen parts, with the seventeen engravings, and
was so lettered, no doubt, by its former owner to shelter it from
indiscreet curiosity!

The practice of giving books of poetry, novels, etc., what may be
described as floricultural titles, has landed cataloguers into an
astonishing number and variety of errors, some of which have been
pointed out by Mr. B. Daydon Jackson in the _Bibliographer_. The chief
sinners have been foreign bibliographers, who, not being able to examine
the books which they catalogue, depend entirely upon the titles. The
same error occurs frequently here in this country. An English trade
journal included Dr. Garnett's selection from Coventry Patmore's poems,
'Florilegium Amantis,' under 'Botany, Farming, and Gardening.' Two of
Mayne Reid's novels, 'The Forest Exiles' and 'The Plant-Hunters,' have
been included among scientific books, but in these cases the errors seem
to have arisen from the misleadingly translated titles, the former in
Italian ('Gli esuli nella foresta; cognizioni di scienza fiscia e
naturale'), and the latter in French, 'Le Chasseur de Plantes.' The
learned Pritzel included among botanical treatises 'The Lotus, or Faery
Flower of the Poets.' In the earlier part of the century a story was in
circulation relative to an erudite collector who was accustomed to boast
of his discoveries in Venetian history from the perusal of a rare
quarto, 'De Re Venaticâ.' A brother bibliographer one day lowered his
pretensions by gravely informing him that the historical discoveries to
which he laid claim had been anticipated by Mr. Beckford, who, towards
the close of the last century, published them to the world under the
analogous title of 'Thoughts on Hunting.'

There is a good deal of amusement to be got sometimes out of even such
an unpromising source as an auctioneer's catalogue, especially when it
includes books. The list of a miscellaneous lot of things lately sold at
a South London depository comes in this category. One of the items, for
example, is entered as 'Dickin's works bound in half,' but who Mr.
'Dickin' is, or was, or what the 'half' indicates, the reader is left to
find out. 'Goldsmith lover' also seems a trifle confusing, until the lot
is hunted up and the discovery made that Goldsmith's 'Works' is
intended. Lytton's 'King John' suggests a work hitherto unknown to
readers of the author of 'My Novel,' until examination proves it to be
'King Arthur,' and 'McCauley's History of England' is rather suggestive
of a scathing indictment of English misrule by an author from the
'distressful country' than of the picturesque prose of the whilom Whig
statesman and book-collector.

[Illustration]




[Illustration]

SOME MODERN COLLECTORS.


WE have already referred, in a preceding chapter, to the origin and
early history of the Roxburghe Club, and also to the disrepute in which
its too zealous members, Hazlewood and Dibdin, contrived to place it.
The club still exists, and flourishes in a manner which renders it
unique among book-clubs. A complete set of its privately-printed
booklets is an almost impossible feat of book-collecting, and an
expensive luxury in which but few can afford to indulge. The present
constitution of the club, the members of which dine together once a
year, is as follows: President: The Marquis of Salisbury, K.G.; S.A.R.
le Duc D'Aumale; the Duke of Buccleuch, K.T.; the Duke of Devonshire,
K.G.; the Marquis of Bute, K.T.; the Marquis of Lothian, K.T.; the
Marquis of Bath; Earl Cowper, K.G.; Earl of Crawford; Earl of Powis;
Earl of Rosebery; Earl of Cawdor; Lord Charles W. Brudenell Bruce; Lord
Zouche; Lord Houghton; Lord Amherst of Hackney; the Lord Bishop of
Peterborough; the Lord Bishop of Salisbury; the Right Hon. A. J.
Balfour, M.P.; Sir William R. Anson, Bart.; Charles Butler, Esq.; Ingram
Bywater, Esq.; Richard Copley Christie, Esq.; Charles I. Elton, Esq.;
Sir John Evans, K.C.B.; George Briscoe Eyre, Esq.; Sir Augustus
Wollaston Franks; Thomas Gaisford, Esq.; Henry Hucks Gibbs, Esq.
(vice-president); Alban George Henry Gibbs, Esq.; A. H. Huth, Esq.
(treasurer); Andrew Lang, Esq.; J. Wingfield Malcolm, Esq.; John Murray,
Esq.; Edward James Stanley, Esq.; Simon Watson Taylor, Esq.; Sir Edward
Maunde Thompson (principal librarian of the British Museum); Rev. Edward
Tindal Turner, Esq.; V. Bates Van de Weyer, Esq.; and W. Aldis Wright,
Esq.

[Illustration: _The late Henry Huth, Book-collector._]

The finest and most select, and perhaps the most extensive, collection
of books owned by any member of the Roxburghe Club is the noble library
of Mr. Huth, whose father, the late Henry Huth, founded it. A very
interesting account of this library, from two points of view--Mr. F. S.
Ellis's and Mr. A. H. Huth's--appears in Part II. of Quaritch's
'Dictionary of English Book-collectors,' whilst the fullest account of
all the rarities which it contains is comprised in the catalogue in five
imperial octavo volumes. It is impossible to do justice to it in the
brief space at our disposal. But a few rarities may be enumerated as
showing its extremely varied nature. Nearly all the early printers are
represented in the Huth Library--there are the Gutenberg and Fust and
Schoeffer Bibles; the Balbi Catholicon, 1460; there are over seventy
Aldines, including the rare Virgil of 1501, with the bookplate of
Bilibald Pirkheimer. There are no less than a dozen fine examples of
Caxton's press; the only known copy on vellum of the 'Fructus Temporum'
of the St. Albans press; about fifty works from the press of Wynkyn de
Worde, of which several are unique; and sixteen works printed by Richard
Pynson. Of Shakespeare quartos the late Mr. Huth secured a very fine
series at the Daniel sale in 1864, including 'Richard II.,' 1597; 'Henry
V.,' 1600; 'Richard III.,' 1597; 'Romeo and Juliet,' 1599; 'Midsummer
Night's Dream,' 1600; 'Merchant of Venice,' 1600; 'Merrie Wives of
Windsor,' 1602; 'Othello,' 1622; 'Titus Andronicus,' 1611; and
'Pericles,' 1609. The library is equally rich in the production of
Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, many of the items being either
unique or very nearly so; it is especially rich in first editions of the
English poets from the earliest times down to Goldsmith, Keats, Shelley,
etc. Indeed, the collection seems to contain the first or best editions
of every English work of note; there are many fine manuscripts, and some
highly interesting autographs. Mr. Ellis tells us that Mr. Huth always
bought on his own judgment, without consultation and without hesitation,
'and I believe it may be safely affirmed that it would be difficult to
name any collector who made fewer errors in his selection. He was never
known to bargain for a book or to endeavour to cheapen it. The price
named, he would at once say 'Yea' or 'Nay' to it, and though it was
supposed at the time that he paid high prices for his books, it may be
confidently asserted that as a whole they are worth very much more than
he paid for them, which, I think, could not have been much less
altogether than £120,000.' Joseph Lilly is said to have sold to or
purchased for Mr. Huth books to the value of over £40,000. Mr. Huth was
born in 1815, and died in 1878. The library is, as we have said, now the
property of his son, Mr. Alfred H. Huth, who has made a number of
important additions to it, and who is as ardent and as genuine a
bibliophile as his father.

[Illustration: _Mr. Henry H. Gibbs, Book-collector._]

Without approaching either in size or interest to that of Mr. Huth, the
choice collection of books formed by Mr. Henry Hucks Gibbs, and lodged
at his town-house at St. Dunstan's, Regent's Park, is full of attraction
to the student of English literature. Early in the present century St.
Dunstan's was inhabited by the Lord Steyne of Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair,'
and it was here that the orgies took place which resulted in the
sensational trial of Nicholas Suisse, the confidant of Lord Hertford.
The library at St. Dunstan's is a lofty, well-lighted room of about 28
feet by 20 feet, and the bookcases are made of Thuya wood from
Australia, a wood which is exceedingly beautiful when polished. Mr.
Gibbs's first book of note was purchased at Bright's sale in 1845, and
was St. Augustine's 'De Arte Predicandi,' a volume of twenty-two leaves,
and of well-known interest to students of early typography. Of Bibles
there are over fifty examples, including Coverdale's, 1535, Matthew's,
1537, Cromwell's, 1539, a very large copy, and Cranmer's, 1540. The fine
series of Prayer-Books comprises forty-seven in English, from the time
of Edward VI. (1549) to that of Queen Victoria, whilst thirty-five
others are in foreign languages. There are nine Primers from the time of
Henry VIII. to Elizabeth; and there are no fewer than thirty-one
editions of the New Testament. Examples of some of the choicest known
Books of Hours and Missals are also in this collection, whilst among the
six editions of the 'Imitatio Christi' there is a sixteenth-century
manuscript on two hundred and forty-seven folios of paper, written by
Francis Montpoudie de Weert, for the use of Bruynix, Priest, Dean of
Christianity. Among the _incunabula_ there is a very large copy of the
'Chronicon Nurembergense,' 1495, and two Caxtons: first, the
'Polychronicon' of Ralph Higden, 1482; and, secondly, the 'Golden
Legend,' 1483, which latter was successively in the Towneley and the
Glendening collections. The other more notable articles include fine
copies of the four Folio Shakespeares, first editions of Milton's
'Comus,' 'Lycidas,' 'Eikonoklastes,' 'Paradise Lost,' and 'Paradise
Regained,' several Spensers, and very complete sets of the
privately-printed books edited by the Rev. A. B. Grosart,
Halliwell-Phillipps, H. Huth, E. Arber, and E. W. Ashbee. A very
interesting _catalogue raisonné_ of Mr. Gibbs's choice library has been
printed, to which the reader is referred for further particulars.

[Illustration: _Mr. R. Copley Christie, Book-collector._]

Just as the minds of no two men run in precisely similar grooves, so no
two libraries are found to be identical. Many bear a very striking
resemblance to one another, but in more than one respect they will be
found to differ. The splendid library formed by Mr. R. Copley Christie,
the president or past-president of quite a number of learned societies,
is altogether unique, so far as this country is concerned, and his
library in a garden--truly the _summum bonum_ of human desires!--at
Ribsden, near Bagshot, is certainly one of the most remarkable which it
has been our privilege to examine. Mr. Christie has not endeavoured to
collect everything, but he has no rival in the specialities to which he
has devoted his particular attention. He is the author of the only
complete monograph on Etienne Dolet, which has been translated into
French, and of which M. Goblet, when Minister of Public Instruction,
caused 250 copies to be purchased for distribution among the public
libraries of France. Of the eighty-four books (many of which are now
lost) printed by Dolet, there are three collections worthy of the name,
and the relative value of these will be seen when we state that Mr.
Christie possesses copies of forty-four, the Bibliothèque Nationale
thirty, and the British Museum twenty-five. Mr. Christie's collection of
the editions of Horace is probably the finest in existence outside one
or two public libraries; he has about 800 volumes, and among these are
translations into nearly every European language. He has upwards of 300
Aldines, nearly forty of which are _editiones principes_. The works of
the early French printers generally are objects of special interest; he
has, for example, about 400 volumes printed by Sebastian Gryphius, at
Lyons, from 1528 to 1556. Mr. Christie's library is also very rich in
works of or relating to Pomponatius, Hortensio Landi, Postel, Ramus, J.
Sturm, Scioppius, Giulio Camillo, and particularly Giordano Bruno.

A considerable number of the members of the Roxburghe Club come in the
category of book-lovers rather than book-collectors. The Earl of
Rosebery is understood to possess many valuable books and manuscripts
relating to Scottish literature, particularly in reference to Robert
Burns; but beyond this he has no fixed rule regarding additions to his
library, 'except his course of reading for the moment.' The father of
the present Lord Zouche formed a small but valuable library, which is
now at Parham Park, Steyning, Sussex; it consists of some rare Syriac,
Greek, Coptic, Bulgarian, and other manuscripts, of a Biblical nature,
some of which are now on loan to the British Museum. In addition to
these, there are a good many early printed books, first editions, and so
forth, and also an extensive reference library, to which the present
Lord Zouche has made some important additions. The extensive library of
the Marquis of Bath, at Longleat, Warminster, has been formed at
different times and by different persons; and what the present holder of
the title has added has been bought without any method on various
subjects in which his Grace happened to take an interest at the time.
Sir John Evans's library is for the most part comprised of
archæological, numismatical, and geological publications, with a certain
number of old volumes 'which, though of intrinsic interest, cannot be
regarded as bibliographical treasures.' Both Sir William Reynell Anson
and the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P., possess good working libraries,
but disclaim the possession of what are known as 'collector's' books.
The present Marquis of Bute possesses several extensive libraries of
books at his various seats, and chiefly composed of works relating to
Scottish history, to liturgical, philological, and archæological
subjects. The first Marquis of Bute formed an excellent collection of
Spanish, Italian, and French classics, of books of memoirs, and of works
relating to the English Reformation. The third Marquis formed another
library, chiefly of a historical character, an exceedingly important
portion of it being an extensive series of books and pamphlets relating
to the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune. The Duke of Buccleuch has
also several fine libraries at his various seats, the chief collections
being at Dalkeith and Bowhill, Selkirk; his Grace keeps very few books
in London. The books at Dalkeith have been catalogued by Mr. A. H.
Bullen, who proposes to print some notes on the subject.

The Duke of Devonshire's library at Chatsworth is one of the most varied
and extensive in the kingdom. An admirable catalogue of it was printed
in four volumes in 1879, and its value as a bibliographical compilation
may be estimated by the fact that the only copy which occurred in the
market during the past eight years fetched £10. The library has been
formed by the taste and learning of several generations of the Cavendish
family, from the middle of the sixteenth century to the present day. The
rarest book which it contains is the 'Liber Veritatis,' or collection
of original designs of Claude Lorraine. The greatest additions were
made to the library by William Spencer, sixth Duke, who, indeed, may be
called its founder in its present form. This nobleman, on the advice of
Tom Payne, offered £20,000 for the purchase of Count McCarthy's
celebrated collection. The offer was declined, but the Duke was a
purchaser to the extent of £10,000 of the choicer portions of the
library of Thomas Dampier, Bishop of Ely, composed, for the most part,
of Greek and Latin classics. The Duke bought largely at the Stanley,
Horn Tooke, Towneley, Edwards, and Roxburghe sales. The library
possesses the unique collection of plays formed by John Philip Kemble,
and for which £2,000 were paid in 1821. The chief features of the
library comprise a fine series of the editions of the Bible and of
Boccaccio; there are also twenty-three works of Caxton, the most
extensive in private hands, now that the Althorp collection has, or is
about to, become public property. There are two dozen books from the
press of Wynkyn de Worde, and no less than 200 editions of Cicero,
including a magnificent copy of the _editio princeps_.

The libraries of two members of the Roxburghe Club have been dispersed
by auction during the last few years--the Earl of Crawford's, in 1887
and 1889, to which reference has already been made; and Mr. Thomas
Gaisford's, in 1890. The former has still a considerable number of
important books, to which he is constantly adding; whilst his eldest son
is worthily sustaining the reputation of the family for its love of rare
and beautiful books. Mr. Gaisford has also a very large library, but he
himself describes the books as of no special interest.

The Marquis of Salisbury possesses, at Hatfield, a fine library, which,
like that of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, is rather the
accumulation of centuries than the formation of any particular head of
the house. Many of the oldest and rarest books were at one time the
properties of either Lord Burghley, Sir Robert Cecil, or of some other
distinguished member of the family. We may mention a few of the
_incunabula_: Æneas Silvius, 'Epistolæ,' 1496; St. Augustine, 'De
Civitate Dei,' 1477; a copy of the magnificently-printed edition of
Aulus Gellius, 'Noctes Atticæ,' Jenson, 1477, a very rare work; Cicero,
'Ad Atticum,' 1470, also printed by Jenson; an example of the _editio
princeps_ Homer, Florence, 1488; Juvenal, 'Satyræ,' 1474; the very rare
second edition of Lactantius, 'Opera,' printed at Rome by Sweynheym and
Parmartz, 1468; Livy, 'Historiarum Romanorum,' printed by Zarothus,
1480; Pomponius Mela, 'Cosmographia,' 1482; Ruffus, 'Opera,' 1472. Lord
Salisbury's library includes several books which once belonged to Roger
Ascham, notably a copy of Aristophanes, 'Comodiæ,' 1532; Aristotle,
'Opera,' 1531; Peter Martyr, 'Tractatio et Disputatio de Sacramento
Eucharistiæ,' etc., 1549, one of the only two copies of which we have
any record, the other example being in the Lambeth Library; and a large
number of tracts of the time of Henry VIII. Of about 200 books which
belonged to Sir Robert Cecil, we may mention two editions of Aristotle,
'Ethica,' 1572 and 1575; Baret, 'An Alvearie, or triple Dictionarie,' in
English, Latin, and French, 1573; French Bible, 1546; Bodin, 'La
Demonomanie des Sorciers,' 1580; Brache, 'Epistolarium Astronomicorum,'
1596; 'Astronomiæ Instauratæ,' 1602, and 'De Mundi Ætherei,' 1603; two
editions of Cicero, 'Rhetorica,' 1552, 1562; Henning's 'Theatrum
Genealogicum,' 1598; Galen, 'De Alimentis,' 1570; three editions of
'Natura Brevium,' one of 1566, and two of 1580; Ubaldino, 'Lo Stata
Della Tre Corti,' 1594. The books of Lord Burghley include Aristotle,
'Ethica,' 1535; 'Opera,' 1539; 'Politica,' 1543; Ashley, 'Mariner's
Mirror,' 1586; Basilius, 'Homiliæ,' 1528, and 'Opera,' 1551; Beda,
'Historia Ecclesiastica'; St. Chrysostom, 'Opera,' 1536; Cyrillus,
'Opera,' 1528; Demosthenes, 'Orationes,' 1528. The edition of
Dioscorides, 'Opera,' 1529, belonged, respectively, to Lord Burghley and
Sir John Cheke.

The library of Mr. John Murray, the eminent publisher, of Albemarle
Street, is a small one, but every item is either excessively rare or
unique. Its formation was begun by Mr. Murray's grandfather, whilst his
father made considerable additions. Naturally, it is very strong in
manuscripts and first editions of Byron. It contains, for example, not
only the original manuscript of 'The Waltz,' but the several
proof-sheets up to a very fine copy of the perfect book. There are also
the manuscript of the four cantos of 'Childe Harold' and the various
proof corrections. There are also first editions of Goldsmith's
'Traveller,' 'The Deserted Village,' 'The Haunch of Venison,' and 'The
Captivity,' with the receipt for the ten guineas which Goldsmith
received for it from Dodsley. Mr. Murray possesses the entire manuscript
of Sir Walter Scott's 'Abbot.' This was originally minus three leaves.
One of these leaves occurred in the market a few years ago, and passed
into the possession of an American collector for £17 10s.; a second was
secured, also at an auction, for £6 by Mr. Murray, so that the
manuscript is only now wanting two leaves. The very interesting
commonplace book of Robert Burns was given by Mr. Murray's grandfather
to J. G. Lockhart, who left it to his son-in-law, Mr. Hope-Scott, from
whom it again passed into the possession of the late Mr. John Murray.
The manuscript 'Journal' of Thomas Gray's travels in England, for the
most part unpublished, is also in Albemarle Street, as is also the
manuscript of Washington Irving's 'Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey.' The
first edition of Pope's 'Dunciad,' successively in the possession of
Malone, Elwin and Peter Cunningham; Pope's own copy of Sir Richard
Blackmore's 'Paraphrase of Job,' 1700, with numerous suggested improved
readings in Pope's own handwriting; the _Quarterly Review_ article of
Southey on Nelson, with the extensive elaborations from which the
printed edition of the book was set up; a fine copy of the First Folio
Shakespeare, 1623; a very fine copy of the _editio princeps_ St.
Augustine, 'De Civitate Dei,' Rome, 1468; the _editio princeps_ Homer,
Florence, 1488; a good copy of the first edition of Shakespeare's
'Midsummer-Night's Dreame,' James Roberts, 1600; a copy of the Prince
Consort's 'Speeches,' presented to Mr. John Murray, with an autograph
letter from the Queen--these are a few of the many notable books of
which Mr. Murray is the fortunate owner. But among the more interesting
of the manuscripts are the volumes of notes made at various times and on
divers occasions by the late John Murray in his travels in North
Germany, France, Switzerland, and South Germany, and from which the
celebrated guide-books were printed--practically every word in the first
and early editions of these widely-known books was written by the
compiler.

New Lodge, Windsor Forest, the residence of Colonel Victor Bates Van de
Weyer, contains a collection of books of a unique character, collected
at vast trouble and expense by his father, the late M. Sylvain Van de
Weyer, one of the founders of the Belgian monarchy, and for many years
Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. M. S. Van de Weyer, who was born
in 1802, and died in 1874, stood in the front rank of modern
bibliophiles, and the magnitude of his collections may be estimated from
the fact that, with town and country house full to overflowing, he had
30,000 volumes in the Pantechnicon when it was burnt down. He was an
indefatigable and discriminating reader as well as a munificent
purchaser. The library is rich in rare editions beautifully bound by men
whose names rank first in the art of bibliopegy. There is a wonderful
collection of fables, and a most complete library of _ana_. The
presentation copies of books are numerous and interesting, bearing as
they do the autographs of individuals famous in politics, literature,
and art. The present owner, who succeeded his father as a member of the
Roxburghe Club, has had the books in the library catalogued, and the
welfare of this noble collection is well thought of.

Both Lord Houghton and Lord Amherst of Hackney possess fine libraries of
rare and interesting books. That of the latter includes a Caxton, 'The
Laste Siege and Conquest of Jherusalem,' 1481; Henry VIII.'s copy of
Erasmus, 'Dialogi,' 1528; the same King's copy of Whytforde's 'The Boke
called the Pype or Toune of the Lyfe of Perfection,' 1532; Grolier's
copies of Stoplerinus, 'Elucidatio fabricæ usuque Astrolabii,' 1524, and
of 'Prognosticatio Johannis Liechtenbergers,' 1526; Maioli's copy of
'Clitophonis Narratio Amatoria,' Lyons, 1544; books bound by Nicholas
Eve; early English bindings; and many others. Mr. C. I. Elton, Q.C.,
M.P., has a fine library, of which a _catalogue raisonné_ has been drawn
up and printed. Mr. Charles Butler and Mr. Ingram Bywater possess a
number of interesting and rare books. Many of the more notable specimens
of the bindings in the libraries of the three last-mentioned gentlemen
were exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1891, and are
described in the catalogue.

Mr. Andrew Lang is not only a distinguished bibliophile, but a prolific
writer on the subject of books. He is understood to have an extensive
library of an exceedingly miscellaneous character. He has an especial
liking for books which bear the traces of former distinguished owners.
He himself has pointed out that, 'as a rule, tidy and self-respecting
people do not even write their names on their fly-leaves, still less do
they scribble marginalia. Collectors love a clean book, but a book
scrawled on may have other merits. Thackeray's countless caricatures add
a delight to his old school books; the comments of Scott are always to
the purpose; but how few books once owned by great authors come into the
general market. Where is Dr. Johnson's library, which must bear traces
of his buttered toast? Sir Mark Sykes used to record the date and place
of purchase, with the price--an excellent habit. The selling value of a
book may be lowered even by a written owner's name, but many a book,
otherwise worthless, is redeemed by an interesting note. Even the
uninteresting notes gradually acquire an antiquarian value, if
contemporary with the author. They represent the mind of a dead age, and
perhaps the common scribbler is not unaware of this; otherwise he is,
indeed, without excuse. For the great owners of the past, certainly, we
regret that they were so sparing in marginalia. But this should hardly
be considered as an excuse for the petty owners of the present, with
"their most observing thumb."' Mr. Lang is the lucky owner of a copy of
Stoddart's poem, 'The Death Wake' (1831), that singular romantic or
necromantic volume, which wise collectors will purchase when they can.
It is of extreme rarity, and the poetry is no less rare, in the French
manner of 1830. On this specimen Aytoun has written marginalia. Where
the hero's love of arms and dread of death are mentioned, Aytoun has
written 'A rum cove for a Hussar,' and he has added designs of skeletons
and a sonnet to the 'wormy author.' 'A curse! a curse!' shrieks the
poet. 'Certainly, but why and wherefore?' says Aytoun. There is nothing
very precious in his banter; still it is diverting to follow in the
footsteps of the author of 'Ta Phairshon.' Mr. Lang also possesses John
Wilkes' copy of the second edition of 'Theocritus, Bion and Moschus,' in
French, with Eisen's plates; he has Leon Gambetta's copy of the 'Journée
Chrétienne,' Collet's copy of his friend Crashaw's 'Steps to the
Temple,' and a copy of Montaigne, with the autograph of Drummond of
Hawthornden.

[Illustration: _The late Frederick Locker-Lampson._

From a Portrait by Mr. Du Maurier.]

The late Frederick Locker-Lampson, whose lamented death occurred whilst
the earlier pages of this book--in which he took much interest--were
passing through the press, was an ideal book-collector. He cared only
for books which were in the most perfect condition. The unique character
of the Rowfant library, its great literary and commercial value, and its
wide interest, may be studied at length in its admirable catalogue,
which of itself is a valuable work of reference. Mr. Locker, for it is
by this name, and as the author of 'London Lyrics,' that he will be best
remembered, devoted his attention almost exclusively to English
literature, although of late years he had devoted as much attention as
his frail health would allow to the formation of a section of rare books
in French literature. It would be impossible to describe in this place
all the many book rarities at Rowfant; we must be content, therefore,
with indicating a few of the more interesting ones: Alexander Pope's own
copy of Chapman's translation of Homer, 1611; one of the largest known
copies of the First Folio Shakespeare, 1623; an extensive series of the
first or early quarto editions of Shakespeare's plays, about fifty in
number--including the spurious plays--many of which were at one
time in the collections of Steevens, George Daniel, Tite, or
Halliwell-Phillipps. The library is rich in other writers of the
Elizabethan period--of Nash, Dekker, Greene, Gabriel Harvey. There are
also a long series of the first editions of Dryden; the earliest issues
of the first complete edition of 'Pilgrim's Progress'; of 'Robinson
Crusoe' (the three parts); of 'Gulliver's Travels,' besides about a
score of other _editiones principes_ of Swift, Pope, Goldsmith,
Fielding, Richardson, Johnson, Gay, Gray, Lamb, Byron, Shelley,
Wordsworth, Thackeray, Dickens and many others. The two early printed
books of especial interest are the 'De Senectute,' printed by Caxton,
1481, and Barbour's 'Actis and Lyfe of the maist Victorious Conquerour,
Robert Bruce, King of Scotland,' printed at Edinburgh by Robert Lepruik
in 1571. The room in which the books are kept is virtually a huge safe;
it was at one time a small ordinary room, and it has been converted into
a fireproof library, with brick walls within brick walls; the floor of
concrete, nearly two feet thick, and a huge iron door, complete an
ingenious and effective protection against the most destructive of all
enemies of books--fire.

[Illustration: _Portrait Bookplate of Mr. Joseph Knight._]

The library of Mr. Joseph Knight, the editor of _Notes and Queries_,
more nearly resembles a select and orderly bookseller's premises than a
private individual's. It seems almost impossible to believe that the
comparatively small house in Camden Square could contain between 12,000
and 13,000 volumes, and yet such is undoubtedly the case. Every room is
crowded, and all the sides of the staircases are crowded with books
from top to bottom. Mr. Knight's library is essentially a working one,
but it is also something more. It is rich in editions of Froissart's
'Chronicles'; in editions of Rabelais--notably the excessively rare one
printed by Michel le Noir, 1505; in Elzevir editions it includes a very
extensive series; the series of the 'Restif de la Bretonne' includes
about 200 volumes, being one of the few complete sets in London. A few
of Mr. Knight's greatest rarities have come to him at very cheap
rates--_e.g._, the 'Apologie pour Herodote,' 1566, without any of the
_cartons_, or cancels, upon which the Genevese authorities insisted.
This little volume, of which there are very few copies known, cost Mr.
Knight 16s., neither buyer nor seller knowing its value at the time of
the transfer. Another 'bargain' is the fine copy of Baudelaire, 'Les
Fleurs de Mal,' 1857, which was fished out of a fourpenny box in High
Street, Marylebone! Mr. Knight's collection of French plays and of works
relating to the French stage is, like that of the English
dramatists--ancient and modern--exceedingly extensive. He possesses,
also, a few good Aldines, a number of Bodonis, and some books of Le
Gason.

Mr. Gladstone is, of course, a book-collector, as well as an omnivorous
reader. The Grand Old Book-hunter's literary tastes cover almost every
conceivable phase of intellectual study. His library contains about
30,000 volumes, to which theology contributes about one-fourth. The
works are arranged by Mr. Gladstone himself into divisions and sections.
For many years he was an inveterate bookstaller, a practice which of
late years has brought with it a certain amount of inconvenience. After
attending Mr. H. M. Stanley's wedding, for example, in 1890, Mr.
Gladstone went on one of his second-hand book expeditions, this time to
Garratt's, in Southampton Row. The right hon. gentleman walked with his
customary elasticity, and was followed to the shop by a large crowd of
admirers, chiefly consisting of working men, whose enthusiasm was kept
in order by three policemen. Outside the bookseller's several hundred
people gathered, and they were not disappointed in their wish to see
the Grand Old Man, for Mr. Garratt's shop does not boast of a back-door
through which fame can escape its penalties. On coming out, Mr.
Gladstone, looking, as a working man standing on the kerb expressed it,
'as straight as a new nail,' received quite an ovation, the people
waving their hats and cheering vigorously as he drove away in a cab. Mr.
Gladstone's marked catalogues are a familiar and a peculiarly welcome
feature with second-hand booksellers, who proudly expose them in their
windows. A bookseller who exhibited one of these catalogues before the
Old Man retired from the Premiership was accosted by a strong Tory with
the remark: 'I see you've got a list marked by Gladstone's initials in
the window;' and then, whispering fiercely in the bookseller's ear, he
added, 'Does he pay you?' We give a facsimile of one of Mr. Menken's
catalogues with an order for books from Mr. Gladstone.

[Illustration: '_An Order from Mr. Gladstone._']

Mr. Henry Spencer Ashbee, of Bedford Square, has a small but charming
library, nearly every volume being beautifully bound. The books are, for
the most part, modern, and chiefly French. There are, for example,
Sainte-Beuve's 'Livre d'Amour,' which was suppressed after a few copies
were struck off, with the author's own corrections; the Fortsas
'Catalogue,' the cruel joke of M. Renier Chalon; first editions of 'The
English Spy,' an exceptionally fine copy; Coryat's 'Crambe, or, his
Colwork,' 1611; Roger's 'Poems' and 'Italy'; a number of books
illustrated by Chodowiecki, the Cruikshank of Germany; practically all
the books published by M. Octave Uzanne and Paul Lacroix in the finest
possible states. Mr. Ashbee possesses several extra-illustrated or
grangerized books of exceptional interest--the nine volumes of Nichols'
'Literary Anecdotes' are extended to thirty-four, there being upwards of
5,000 additional portraits, views, and so forth. Mr. Ashbee's library
comprises several thousand volumes, the binding alone of which must have
cost a small fortune.

[Illustration: _Portrait Bookplate of Mr. H. S. Ashbee._]

[Illustration: _Mr. T. J. Wise, Book-collector._]

The libraries of Mr. Thomas J. Wise and Mr. Walter Slater may be
bracketed together, partly because they have been formed side by side.
They differ in many respects, however. Mr. Wise's is a small but choice
collection of books, autographs, and manuscripts of modern writers. He
possesses, for the most part, in first editions of the finest quality,
practically everything written by Matthew Arnold, William Blake, Robert
Browning and Mrs. Browning, Byron, Coleridge, Shelley, George Eliot,
Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, Landor, Meredith, William Morris, John Ruskin,
Swinburne, and Tennyson. Of Shelley, for example, Mr. Wise has a
collection of 400 books and pamphlets by or concerning him. There is
only one other collection comparable to it, and it is that possessed by
Mr. Buxton Forman. Of Byron Mr. Wise has everything, including 'The
Waltz,' 'Poems on Various Occasions,' and all the other excessively
rare publications of this prolific poet, the only exception, indeed,
being 'The Curse of Minerva,' 1812. Mr. Wise's collection of Ruskiniana
is practically complete, and includes a number of privately-printed
pamphlets issued to a few personal friends. Mr. Walter Slater's books
and manuscripts include a unique series of both Dante G. Rossetti and
Walter Savage Landor. Of the former, it contains the manuscript of
three-fourths of the 'House of Life' series of sonnets, the manuscript
of 'St. Agnes,' and the whole of the extant manuscript of 'The King's
Tragedy'; these manuscripts usually include not only the 'copy' as it
was sent to the printer, but usually the first and second drafts. The
series of Landor books and pamphlets is quite complete, from his first
book of poems, 'Moral Epistles,' issued in 1795, and the equally
excessively rare 'Poems from the Arabic and Persian,' issued at Warwick
in 1800, to 'Savonarola,' in Italian, 1860. Mr. Slater has a complete
series of the first editions of the curious works of Mrs. Behn.

[Illustration: _Mr. Clement Shorter's Bookplate._]

Mr. Clement K. Shorter, the editor of the _Illustrated London News_, the
_Sketch_, and several other publications, is a book-collector who, like
Mr. Wise and Mr. Slater, has pitched his 'tent' on the northern heights
of London. Mr. Shorter has an unusually complete set of the works of
Thomas Hardy, George Meredith, Sir Walter Scott, Charlotte
Brontë--besides the 'Cottage Poems' of old Mr. Brontë--and Matthew
Arnold. Of the last named there are copies of the very limited editions
of 'Geist's Grave,' 'St. Brandran,' 'Home Rule for Ireland,' and 'Alaric
at Rome.' Mr. Shorter's Ruskin treasures include a volume of the plates
of 'Modern Painters,' on India paper, bound up in vellum. There are also
several first editions of the earlier works of Carlyle, and William
Watson's 'Lachrymæ Musarum,' on vellum, with the original manuscript
bound up with it. Mr. Shorter has many interesting manuscripts and books
by Oliver Wendell Holmes, R. L. Stevenson, and A. C. Swinburne, with
autographs or notes by their respective authors. Mr. Richard le
Gallienne, the well-known author, has for many years been a confirmed
book-hunter, and has come across some rare and interesting finds. Mr.
Henry Norman, the traveller and assistant editor of the _Daily
Chronicle_, has a number of choice and rare books, chiefly first
editions of American authors--J. Russell Lowell, Longfellow, O. W.
Holmes, Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Whittier--nearly all of whom were
personal friends of Mr. Norman's. Mr. Norman has gone to the
extravagance of two sets of the first editions of Thomas Hardy's books,
whilst of George Meredith there is one complete set.

[Illustration: _Mr. A. Birrell, Book-collector._]

The House of Commons contains several men who have very excellent
libraries and excellent judgments of books. Mr. Leonard Courtney has
been guilty of bookstalling a good many times in his successful career,
and is, perhaps, an exception to the general rule that good political
economists usually make poor book-hunters. Mr. Courtney possesses a good
many uncommon books, which he has picked up from time to time. Mr.
Augustine Birrell, Q.C., the author of 'Obiter Dicta,' and son-in-law of
the late Frederick Locker-Lampson, has a good library of from 5,000 to
6,000 books. Among these may be noticed the first edition of Gray's
'Elegy,' picked up at Hodgson's for 3s. 6d.; first edition of Keats'
'Endymion,' purchased off a stall in the Euston Road for 2s. 6d.; first
edition of 'Wuthering Heights'; and an extensive series of books
relating to or by Dryden, Pope, Swift, and others of that period, as
well as a number of presentation copies of books by Matthew Arnold,
Browning, and Tennyson, etc. Mr. T. R. Buchanan, M.P., who was for many
years librarian of All Souls' College, Oxford, has a small but select
library of books which are, for the most part, remarkable on account of
the beauty or rarity of their bindings. It is especially strong in fine
specimens of early English and Scotch bindings; there are a few examples
from De Thou's library, and a few characteristic specimens of Italian
and Flemish bindings of the best periods. The books themselves are
principally editions of the classics; but the section of Bibles printed
in England and Scotland is a full one. There are also many volumes with
a personal interest; for example, the copy of Locke's 'Essay concerning
the Human Understanding' was once Coleridge's, and contains a note by
him to this effect: 'This is, perhaps, the most admirable of Locke's
works; read it, Southey,' etc.; and the copy of the 'Libri Carolini,'
1549, was Scaliger's.

Captain R. S. Holford, of Dorchester House, Park Lane, has a choice
library of beautiful and rare books, formed by his father, the late H.
S. Holford. For many years its chief treasure was the only known first
edition of 'Pilgrim's Progress,' 1678, which was valued at £50; during
the last few years, however, four other copies have turned up, without,
however, lessening the commercial value of the Holford copy, which would
probably fetch two or three times the amount at which it was valued
thirty years ago. The facsimile of the first edition issued a few years
ago was made from Mr. Holford's copy. A few other treasures of Captain
Holford's library may be briefly mentioned as follows: A
fifteenth-century manuscript of Livy's 'Historia,' on vellum, in a
Venetian binding, with the arms of Aragon; Cardinal Hippolyto d'Este's
copy of Rhinghier, 'Cento Giuochi Liberali, et d' Ingegno,' Bologna,
1551; Grolier's copy of Pliny, 'Epistolæ,' etc., Venice, 1518; of
Valerius Maximus, Venice, 1534; and of 'Epitomes des Roys de France,'
Lyons, 1546; the Maioli copy of Homer, 'Odyssea,' Paris, 1538; Du
Bellay's 'Memoirs,' 1572, with the arms of Henri de Bourbon, Prince de
Condé; and the copy of 'Liber Psalmorum Davidis,' 1546, bound by
Nicholas Eve for De Thou.

[Illustration: _Facsimile of Title-page, 'Pilgrim's Progress,' First
Edition._]

Dr. W. H. Corfield, Mr. C. E. H. Chadwyck-Healey, Q.C., Sir Julian
Goldsmid, M.P., Mr. C. F. Murray, Mr. George Salting, Mr. Samuel
Sandars, Mr. H. Yates Thompson, Mr. H. Virtue Tebbs, and Mr. T. Foster
Shattock, are understood to possess choice libraries of books noted
chiefly for the beauty or rarity of their bindings. M. John Gennadius,
late Greek Minister at the Court of St. James's, possessed one of the
finest libraries formed during recent years. This collection was
destined to supplement and ornament the National Library of Greece,
founded at Athens by his Excellency's father, on the very morrow of her
liberation. Fate, however, ordered otherwise, and these beautiful books
were, consequently, dispersed at Sotheby's, from March 28 to April 9,
the eleven days' sale of 3,222 lots realizing £5,466. The library of Mr.
W. Christie-Miller, of Britwell Court, Maidenhead, is understood to
include many choice books, particularly early printed works, but no
particulars of it are available.

Holland House Library is one of great historic value and interest. It is
fully described by the Princess Marie Liechtenstein, in her monograph on
the place. Macaulay has described the appearance of the library in his
famous essay on Lord Holland. It is rather a collection formed by a
statesman and a literary man than by a bibliophile; there are over
10,000 volumes, many of which are privately printed books, presentation
copies; there is a large collection of historical works relating to
Italy, Portugal, and France; Spanish literature, a memento of the taste
of the third Lord Holland, is well represented; the collection of
Elzevirs is very fine, as is also that of the Greek and Latin classics,
and the highly curious collection of various copies of Charles James
Fox's 'James II.,' which belonged to different celebrities, is housed
here.

Mr. C. J. Toovey inherited from his father, the late James Toovey, a
fine library of exceptionally choice books; it is rich in monuments of
the Early English printers, one of its gems being a fine copy of the
'Boke of St. Albans'; Aldines probably form one of its largest sections,
whilst in bindings by the great masters of the French school of
bibliopegic art the library has very few equals. Many of these were
purchased by the late Mr. Toovey in Paris, long before the present rage
for them had commenced, so that, as an investment, they will doubtless
yield a handsome profit if they ever come into the market. The series of
Walton's 'Angler' includes the first edition, with a presentation
inscription by the author; there is also the largest known First Folio
edition of Shakespeare, to which reference has already been made.

[Illustration]




[Illustration]

INDEX.


  ADDISON, JOSEPH, 39, 108, 265, 267

  Advocates, Library of the College of, 116

  Ainsworth, W. Harrison, 83, 288, 289

  Alchorne, S., 109

  Alcuin, 2, 3, 139

  Alde, John, 183

  Aldersgate Street, 39

  Aldine editions, 129-131, 300, 304

  Aldus, 129

  Alfred, 3

  Allen, Thomas, 31

  Almon, J., 250

  Althorp Library, the, 50, _et seq._

  America, book trade with, 189

  America, tracts on, 90

  Amherst of Hackney, Lord, 309

  Anacreon, Stephen edition, 129

  Anderson, Adam, 219

  Anderson, G. B., 94

  Anderson, John, 193

  Anglesey, Earl of, 27, 101 _note_

  Angling books, Francis's, 93

  Anson, Sir W. R., 305

  'Anthologia Græca' (1494), 130

  'Apologie pour Herodote,' 314

  Arch, J. and A., 186

  Archaica Club, 79

  Archer, Sir Anthony, 16

  'Aristophanes' (1498), 129

  Aristotle (1495-98), 130

  Arthur, Thomas, 230

  Arundel, Henry, Earl of, 15, 16, 18

  Ascham, Roger, 307

  Ascham's 'Toxophilus,' 120

  Ashbee, Mr. H. S., 315

  Ashburnham, Lord, 126, 285

  Ashmole, Elias, 18

  Askew, Dr. A., 41

  Askew Sale, the, 128, _et seq._

  Asperne, James, 186

  Athelstan, 3

  'Atticus,' 46

  Auctions, book, 98, _et seq._, 210

  Aulus Gellius, 'Noctes,' 307

  Aylesford, Earl of, 89, 117


  Bacon, Francis, 19

  Bacon, Roger, 6

  Bagford, John, 30, 31, 204, 268

  Bagster, S., 235

  Bain, James, 240

  Baker, Mr. E. E., 91

  Baker, H., 249

  Baker, Samuel, 100 _note_, 102, 103, 223

  Baker, Thomas, 34

  'Balbi Catholicon,' the, 127, 300

  Baldwin and Cradock, 210

  Bale, John, 13

  Bale's 'Image of Both Churches,' 196

  Balfour, Mr. A. J., 305

  Ballads, 74

  Ballard, T. and E., 103

  Ballards of Little Britain, 173

  Banks, Dr., 219

  Bannatyne Club, the, 62 _note_

  Baptist Library at Bristol, 138

  Barbican, the, 176, 177

  Barclay's 'Ship of Fools,' 120, 121

  Barnard, Sir John, 238

  Barnfield's 'Encomion of Lady Pecunia,' 41

  'Baroccio,' 69

  Barrett, Thomas, 35

  Barton, Bernard, 76, 296

  Bassett, Thomas, 219

  Batemans of Little Britain, 171

  Bates, Dr., 39

  Bath, Marquis of, 304, 305

  Bathoe, Sam., 103

  Bathoe, W., 234

  Baudelaire, 'Les Fleurs de Mal,' 314

  Bauduyn (Piers), stationer, 10

  Baylis, Alderman, 223

  Baynes, W., 211

  Beauclerk, Topham, 55 and _note_, 111

  Beckett-Denison, C., 117

  Becket, Thomas, 176 _note_, 236

  Beckford, Peter, 49, 297, 298

  Beckford, William, 48-50, 256

  Bede, the Venerable, 3

  Bedford, Francis, 87

  Bedford, John, Duke of, 9, 17

  Bedford Missal, the, 9, 109

  Bedford Street, Strand, 241

  Beet, Thomas, 251

  Bell and Sons, George, 244

  Benedict Biscop, 2, 3

  Bennett, T., 187

  Bentham, W., 61

  Bentley, Dr. R., 116, 195, 196

  Benzon, Mrs., 270

  Berkeley, Earl of, 25

  Bernard, Dr. Francis, 34, 132

  Bernard, Sir Thomas, 71

  Berthelet, Thomas, 261

  Bibles and New Testaments, 136-140, 212, 261, 262, 285, 291, 302, 306
    'Biblia Pauperum,' 272
    Coverdale's (1535), 72, 89, 138, 263, 268, 302
    Cranmer's (1540 and 1553), 72, 302
    Cromwell's (1539), 302
    Douay (1663), 120
    Eliot's Indian, 119
    Fust and Schoeffer (1462), 126, 300
    German, 95
    Græca Septuaginta, 192 _note_
    Gutenberg (or Mazarin) (1455), 58, 72, 89, 90, 114, 125, 126, 255,
        300
    Hayes (1674), 21
    Matthew's (1537), 72, 302
    Tyndale's (1525-1526, 1533), 89, 137, 138
    St. Jerome's MS., 140

  Bibliomania, the decay of, 69

  Bibliomaniac, A, 78

  Bibliomaniac, the 'Library' of a, 200

  Bibliophile, A, 78

  Bibliophobia, 108

  Bindley, James, 43, 66, 108, 109

  Birrell, Mr. A., 145, 319

  Bishopsgate Churchyard, 161

  Black-letter books, 136

  Black-letter booksellers, the, 236

  Black-letter collectors, 'Father' of, 27 _note_

  Black-letter mania, 59

  Blackwell's 'Herbal,' 105

  Blake, W., 93

  Blandford, Marquis of, 61 _note_, 109, 124

  Block book, 89

  Bloomfield, R., 154

  Boccaccio, the Valdarfer, 52, 61, 93, 123-125

  Boccaccio, 'Les Illustres Malheureux,' 50

  Bodleian, the, 23, 67

  Bodley, Sir T., 22, 283

  Boethius, 'Consolation of Philosophy,' 4

  Bohn, H. G., 50, 243, 244, 255

  Bohn, James, 243

  Bohn, J. H., 243, 244

  'Boke of St. Albans,' 136, 322

  Bolland, Sir W., 61, 69

  Bonaparte, Prince L. L., 95, 96, 254

  Bonaventure's 'Life of Christ,' 9

  Bond Street, 249, _et seq._

  Book auctions and sales, 98, _et seq._

  Book-borrowers, 274, _et seq._

  Book catalogues, some humours of, 293-298

  Booker, John, 18

  Book-ghouls, 160

  Book-hunting, early, 1

  Book-marking, Lamb's notion of, 76

  Book-pluralists, 46

  Books and their prices, 118, _et seq._

  'Booksellers,' the, a poem, 193

  Booksellers' Row. _See_ Holywell Street

  Bookstalls and bookstalling, 149-167

  Book-thieves, 274, _et seq._

  Boone, T. and W., 246, 250

  Booth, Lionel, 116

  Boswell, James, 108, 229

  Boucher, Jonathan, 70

  Bourne, Zacharius, 100

  Bovey, Mrs., 265

  Bowles, Rev. J., 220

  Bowyer, Jonah, 216

  Bowyer, William, 216

  Boydell, Alderman, 251

  Bozier's Court, 201

  Brabourne, Lord, 93, 106

  Bradbury and Evans, 116

  Brand, Rev. John, 112, 179, 190, 207

  Brassey, Mrs., 271

  Bremner, David, 241

  Bridges, John, 34, 121, 122

  Bright, B. H., 108, 143 _note_, 302

  Brindley, J., 249

  Bristol, Earl of, 26, 31

  British Museum copies of the classics, 128-131, 139, 166

  British Museum, 276

  Britten, Mr. James, 151

  Britton, Thomas, 172, 173

  Broadly, John, 109

  Brooke, Lord Warwick, 100

  Brown, Mr. J., 200

  Brown, 'Old,' 157

  Bruck, Cudworth, 193

  Bruscambille on 'Long Noses,' 152

  Bryant, W., 112

  Brydges, Sir Egerton, 47, 59

  Buccleuch, Duke of, 90, 305

  Buchanan, Mr. T. R., 319

  Buckley, Samuel, 174

  Buckley, W. E., 94

  Bull and Auvache, 206

  Bumstead, G., 245

  Bunyan, John, 183

  Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress,' 145, 146, 312, 320, 321

  Burbidge, Prebendary E., 18

  Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, 141, 142

  Burgess, F., 95

  Burghley, Lady M., 264

  Burghley, Lord, 306

  Burlington, Countess of, 265

  Burnet, Bishop, 234

  Burnet, Rev. Gilbert, 232

  Burney, Dr., 238

  Burns, R., 281, 304, 308

  Burton, Robert, 23

  Butcher Row, 223-225

  Bute, Marquis of, 305

  Butler, Mr. Charles, 310

  Butler's 'Hudibras,' 219

  Butterworth, Henry, 217 _note_

  Byng, Mr., 144

  Byron, Lord, 109, 316

  Byron's 'Childe Harold,' 308

  Byron's 'English Bards,' 85

  Byron's 'Waltz,' 308

  Bywater, Mr. Ingram, 310


  Cadell, Thomas, 235

  Cadell and Davis, 235

  Cæsar's (Sir Julius) Travelling Library, 22, 23, 110

  Cæsar's 'Commentaries,' 55

  Caldecott, Thomas, 68

  Camden, W., 21

  Campbell, Mr. Dykes, 106

  Canonbury Tower, 72 and _note_, 73

  Carbery, Lord, 31

  Caroline, Queen, 268

  Casaubon, Dr. M., 25

  Cashel, Bishop of, 255

  Cassell and Co., 116

  Castell, Dr., 100

  Catalogues. _See_ Book Catalogues

  Cater, W., 193

  Caviceo, 'Dialogue,' etc., 93

  Cawthorn and Hutt, 208

  Caxton, W., 12, 30, 60, 61, 72, 109, 111, 132, 135, 190, 247, 248,
        262, 268, 300, 306
    'Arthur, King,' 133
    'Book called Cathon,' 132, 133 (_bis_)
    'Book of Chivalry,' 136
    'Book of Good Manners,' 33
    'Chastising of God's Children,' 13, 132
    'Christine of Pisa,' 89
    Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales,' 136
    'Chronicles of England,' 90, 132, 133
    Cicero ('De Senectute'), 'Of Old Age,' 89, 132, 133, 313
    'Dictes and Sayings,' 90, 132
    'Doctrinal of Sapience,' 132, 133
    'Faits d'Armes et de Chevalerie,' 13
    'Game and Playe of Chesse,' 90, 132, 133, 135
    'Godfrey of Bulloigne,' 13, 33, 132
    'Golden Legend,' 13, 93, 133, 271, 303
    Gower's 'Confessio Amantis,' 133
    Higden's 'Description of Britayne,' 90
    Higden's 'Polychronicon,' 89, 303
    'Historyes of Troy,' 132 (_bis_)
    'History of Blanchardyn and Eglantine,' 133
    'History of Jason,' 132, 133 (_bis_)
    'Life of St. Katherine,' 220, 221
    Lydgate's 'Life of our Lady,' 220
    'Lives of the Fathers,' 220
    'Mirrour of the World,' 90, 95, 133
    'Royal Book, or Book for a King,' 90
    Russell's 'Propositio,' 134
    'Siege and Conquest of Jerusalem,' 309
    'Troylus and Creside,' 133
    Virgil's 'Æneid,' 13, 133

  Caxton Head Catalogues, 204

  Caxton, the highest paid for a, 133

  Caxtons, the Althorp, 133

  Cecil, Sir Robert, 306

  Chadwyck-Healey, Mr. E. H., 320

  Chained books at Hereford

  Chalmers, George, 69, 70

  Champernoun, Mr., 57

  Chandler, Dr., 289

  Chapman, Henry, 235

  Charing Cross, 235-246

  Charing Cross Road, 258

  Charles I.'s Prayer-Book, 87

  Charles II., 21

  Charlotte, Queen, as a book-hunter, 215

  Charnock, Dr. S., 100

  Cheapside, 184, 185

  Chetham Library, the, 118

  Child, Alderman, 56

  Chiswell, R., 33, 100, 213

  Chodowiecki, 316

  Christ Church (Canterbury), Books at, 7, 9

  Christ's Hospital, Newgate Street, 8

  Christie, James, 100 _note_, 103, 117, 291

  Christie, Manson and Woods, 117

  Christie, Mr. R. C., 297, 303

  'Chronicon Nurembergense,' 303

  Churchill, A. and J., 210

  Cicero, 306. _See_ also Caxton

  Cicero, 'Ad Atticum,' 307

  Circulating Library, the first, 234

  Clare Hall, Cambridge, 260

  Clare Market, 232

  Clarendon, Earl of, 117

  Clarke, W., 135, 251

  Classics, their market value, 127-131

  Claude's 'Liber Veritatis,' 305

  Clavell, Robert, 214

  Clement's Inn Passage, 225, 226

  Clovio, Giulio, 57

  Cochrane, J. G., 113, 221

  Cock, auctioneer, 103

  Cockaine, Sir Aston, 36

  Coke, Sir Edward, 25

  Colebrook Row, Islington, 76, 77

  Coleridge, S. T., 76-78, 289, 320

  Collier's 'Ecclesiastical Library,' 16

  Collier, John Payne, 74-76, 230

  Collins, Mr. Victor, 95, 96

  Collins, W., 185

  Columbus letter, the, 94

  Comerford, James, 86

  Compton, 113

  Conant, N., 221

  Conway, Lord, 24

  Conyers, George, 216

  Cooke, R. F., 94

  Cook, Sir Robert, 25

  Cooper, Mr. A. E., 258

  Cooper, William, 99, 100

  Copinger, Dr., 97

  Corfield, Dr. W. H., 320

  Corney, Bolton, 71

  Cornhill, 184-186

  Cosens, F. W., 93

  Cosin, Dr., 24, 26

  Cotton, Charles, 36

  Cotton, Sir Robert, 21, 22, 283

  Courtney, Mr. Leonard, 319

  Cowper, W., 215

  Coxhead, J., 196

  Cracherode, C. M., 64-66, 238

  Craig, J. T. Gibson, 88, 89

  Cranmer, Archbishop, 16, 18

  Crawford, Earl of, 88, 89, 126, 306

  Crawford, W. H., 93

  Crockford's, 226

  Crofts, Rev. Thos., 111

  Croker, Thomas C., 81, 82

  Crossley, James, 287

  Crowinshield, Edward, 115

  Crowley, Robert, 191

  Crozier, of the Little Turnstile, 202, 203

  Cruden, Alexander, 185

  Cruikshankiana, 90

  Cunning bookseller, the, 250

  Curll, Edmund, 219

  Currer, Miss R., 268-270


  Dalrymple, Alex., 56

  Dampier, Dean, 238, 306

  Daniell, Mr. E., 106

  Daniel, G., 72-74, 141-143, 143 _note_

  Daniel's, 'Delia,' 87

  Dante, the Landino edition, 93

  Darton and Hodge, 116

  Darton, W., 196-198

  Davies, Tom, 237

  Davis, Arthur, 28

  Davis, Charles, 187, 197

  Davis, Lockyer, 199, 236

  Davis, W., 199

  Day and Son, 116

  Day's circulating library, 208

  Debrett, J., 250

  De Bury, Richard, 7

  Dee, Dr., 18

  Defoe, Daniel, 156

  Delafaye, Charles, 219

  Denbigh, Lord, 31

  Denham, Henry, 210

  Denis, John, 181

  Dent, J., 61, 62, 68, 69

  Derby, Lord, 31

  Dering, Sir Edward, 115

  Derwentwater, Earl of, 292

  Devonshire, Dukes of, 61 _note_, 124, 133, 141, 142, 173, 305, 306

  Dibdin, T. F., 57, 61, 63, 64, 109

  Dickens, Charles, 83, 86

  Digby, Sir Kenelm, 26, 31, 100, 120

  Dilke, C. W., 64, 202, 203

  Dilly, C. and E., 183, 184

  Dimsdale sale, the, 108

  Diodorus Siculus (1539), 130

  D'Israeli, Isaac, 71

  Dobell, Mr. B., 106, 258

  Dobson, Mr. Austin, 45

  Dodsley, James, 251

  Dodsley, R., 251

  Dolben, Sir John E., 56

  Dolet, Etienne, 304

  Dorset, Earl of, 170

  Douce, Francis, 67

  Drake, Sir Francis, 19

  Dramatic library of F. Burgess, 95

  Dramatic library of F. Marshall, 93

  Drama, works on the, 68, 291, 306

  Drayton, M., 84, 158

  Droeshout portrait of Shakespeare, 91

  Drummond of Hawthornden, 311

  Drummond, Miss, 271

  Drummond's 'Forth Fasting,' 86

  Drury, H. J. T., 70

  Dryden, John, 35

  Duck Lane, 175, 176

  Duck, Stephen, 219

  Duerdin, J., 115

  Duke Street, Little Britain, 175, 176

  Dulwich College Library, 204

  Dunmore, John, 213

  Dunton, John, 100-102

  Dutens, Rev. L., 117

  Dyce, Alexander, 47, 83-85, 289

  Dyson, H., 35


  Eadburga, Abbess, 260

  East End, book-hunting in, 155, _et seq._

  _Editiones Principes_, 128-131

  Edmonds, Sir Clement, 211

  Edward I., 3

  Edward IV., 10, 33

  Edward VI., 13

  Edwards, E., 7, 31

  Edwards, James, 117, 249

  Egbert, 2

  Egerton, T. and J., 113, 236

  'Eikon Basilike,' 101 _note_

  Elcho, the Dowager Lady, 270

  Eliot's Indian Bible, 119

  Elizabethan literature, 301

  Elizabeth de Burgh, 260

  Elizabeth (Princess), of Hesse-Homburg, 270

  Elizabeth, Queen, 17, 18, 260, 262-264

  Ellis, Mr. F. S., 35, 245, 246, 286, 300, 301

  Ellis, Mr. G. I., 106, 246

  Elmsley, Peter, 238, 240

  Elton, Mr. C. I., 310

  Elyot's 'Castell of Helth,' 166

  Erasmus' 'Enchiridion Militis Christiani,' 119

  Eshton Hall Library, the, 268-270

  Essex, Earl of, 264

  Eton College Library, 17

  Euripides (1503), 129

  Evans, R. H., 109, 110

  Evans, Sir John, 305

  Evans, Thomas, 110, 216

  Evelyn, John, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 37, 212

  Evelyn, Sir, 250

  Exeter 'Change, 105, 154, 155

  Extra-illustrating, 165


  Fabyan's 'Chronicle,' 120

  Fagel Collection, 111

  Fairfax, Bryan, 56

  Farmer, Dr. R., 41, 112

  Farnese, Cardinal, 57

  Farringdon Road, 158, 159

  Fathers, the, 120

  Faulder, R., 250

  Felton, John, 23, 24

  Fenestella, 'De Magistratibus,' 263

  Fielding, Henry, 44, 45, 94, 108, 196

  'Finds,' some book, 149, 150, 229, 230

  Finsbury Square, 178, 179-183

  Fire, the great, 212, 213

  Flatman's 'Poems,' 85

  Fleet Street, 216-223

  Fleetwood, Bishop, 17

  Fletcher, J. and F., 114

  Flexney, W., 194

  Folkes, Martin, 108

  Fonthill, 49

  Foote, Samuel, 163

  Ford, K. J., 183

  Forster, John, 83-85, 202, 203

  'Fortsas Catalogue,' the, 315

  Foss, Henry, 239

  Foster, Birket, Mr., 94

  Fountaine Collection, the, 261

  Fox's 'Reign of James II.,' 86

  Fox, William, 193

  Francis, Francis, 93

  Franklin, B., 175, 250

  Freebairn's sale, 38, 240

  Freeling, Francis, 61

  Freeling, Henry, 61

  French Revolution, 58, 67

  Fresnile, John, 8

  Froissart's 'Chronicles,' 314

  'Fructus Temporum,' 300

  Fuller's 'Church History,' 14

  Fuller's 'David's Hainous Sinne,' 151

  Funnibus, L., 147


  Gainsborough, Earl of, 117

  Gaisford, Mr. Thomas, 93, 306

  Galwey, Mr. J., 234

  Gambetta, Leon, 311

  Gardner, H. L., 236

  Garnett, Dr. R., 166

  Garrick, D., 85

  Garth, Samuel, 176

  Gataker, Dr. Thos., 100

  Genlis, Madame de, 286

  Gennadius, M. J., 320-322

  George and Sons, E., 187-189

  George III., 53, 54, 130, 135, 141

  Gibbon, E., 44, 240

  Gibbs, Mr. H. H., 301, 302

  Gifford, Dr., 139, 140

  Gilbert and Field, 186, 187

  Gilbert, S. and T., 187

  Gilliflower, M., 248

  Gladding, R., 187, 188

  Gladstone, W. E., 86, 95, 254, 314, 315

  Glashier, George, 202

  Glasse's 'Art of Cookery,' 150

  Gloucester, Humphrey, Duke of, 9, 10

  Goldsmid, Sir Julian, 320

  Goldsmith, Oliver, 44

  Goldsmith's 'The Haunch of Venison,' 308

  Goldsmith's 'The Deserted Village,' 308

  Goldsmith's 'Traveller,' 308

  Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield,' 94, 146

  Gomme, Mr. G. L., 151

  Goodhugh, W., 206

  Gordon, Sir Robert, 113

  Gosford, Earl of, 114

  Gosset, Dr. Isaac, 70

  Gough, R., 67, 103

  Gower, Lord, 61, 62

  Grafton, Duke of, 109

  Grafton, R., 74

  Grangerizing, 165, 316

  Gravelot's print of Westminster Hall, 247, 248

  Gray, Mr. H., 114

  Gray's Inn Gate and Road, 191, 192, 273

  Gray's MSS., 81, 146, 308

  Gray, T., 84, 85, 319

  Green, Mr. J. Arnold, 272

  Greenhill, Rev. W., 100

  Grenville, Thos., 69, 75, 238

  Greville, C. F., 117

  Griffith, W., 216

  Griffiths, Ralph, 210

  Grolier, 65, 309

  Grose, Francis, 238

  _Grub Street Journal_, 241 _note_

  Gryphius, S., 304

  Guilford, Earl of, 109

  Guilford, Francis, Baron, 31

  Gulston, Joseph, 113

  Guy de Beauchamp, 6

  Guy, Thomas, 184

  Gwillim's 'Display of Heraldry,' 156

  Gyles, Fletcher, 123


  Hailstone, Edward, 93

  Halifax, Lord, 31

  Hall, Virtue, and Co., 116

  Halliwell-Phillipps, J. O., 71, 74, 90-92

  Hamilton, Dukes of, 48, 50

  Hamilton, Sir W., 117

  Hammers, auctioneers, 100 and _note_

  Hannay's 'Nightingale,' 70

  Hanrott, 71

  Harcourt, Lady F. V., 270

  Harding and Lepard, 183

  Harding's 'Chronicle,' 121

  Hardouyn, G., 17

  Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor, 89

  Hardy, Sir William, 88

  Harleian Library, The, 192

  Harley, Earl of Oxford, 31, 34, 38

  Hartley, L. L., 87, 114

  Harvey, Gabriel, 19

  Harvey, Mr. F., 165

  Harwood, Dr., 128-131

  Hatchards, 252-254

  Hawkins, Rev. W. B. L., 117

  Hawkins, Sir John, 193, 238

  Hawtrey, Dr., 71

  Hayes, John, 193, 199

  Hayes, Samuel, 199

  Hazlewood, Joseph, 61, 63, 64

  Hazlitt MSS., The, 94

  Hazlitt, William, 77

  Hearle of Holywell Street, 228

  Hearne, Thomas, 27 _note_, 34, 35, 122, 283

  Heath, Benjamin, 122, 123

  Heathcote, Robert, 68

  Heber, Richard, 45-48, 61, 62, 108, 110, 268

  Heber, Thomas C., 61

  Heliconia Club, 79

  Henderson, the actor, 291

  Henry, Prince, 20, 21

  Henry IV., 9

  Henry V., 9, 260

  Henry VI., 9, 10

  Henry VII., 12, 13

  Henry VIII., 13, 17, 261, 309

  Herbert, Isaac, 199

  Heriot, George, 264

  Herodotus (1502), 129

  Heydinger, C., 236

  Hibbert-Wade, Dr., 289

  Highest price paid for a book, 126

  Hill, Mr. H. R., 231

  Hill, Thomas, 78-80, 110

  Hindley, Mr. C., 106, 231

  Hoare, Richard, 28

  Hodge, Mr. E. Grose, 105, 106

  Hodgson and Co., 116, 146, 162-164

  Hogarth, W., 234

  Holborn, 191-208

  Holford, Captain, 146, 320

  Holgate, W., 71

  Holinshed's 'Chronicle,' 33

  Holland's 'Heröologia,' 118

  Holland House Library, 322

  Holland, Lord, 86, 322

  Hollingbury Copse, 91

  Holywell Street, 153, 154, 215, 227-231

  Homer, the _editio princeps_ (1488), 119, 128

  Homer, 120, 311

  Homer, the Foulis edition, 129

  Hone, W., 216

  Hood, Tom, 184

  Hookham, T., 250

  Hopetoun, Earl of, 126

  Hopetoun House Library, 90

  Horace, _editio princeps_, 130

  Horæ, 261

  Horne's 'Orion,' 229

  Horsfield, R., 214, 215

  Hotten, J. C., 115

  Houghton, Earl of, 309

  Hume, David, 44, 230

  Hunter, Mr., 130

  Hunt, Leigh, 149

  Hutchinson, Joshua H., 94

  Huth, Mr. A. H., 301

  Huth, H., 254, 300, 301

  Hutt, Charles, 225

  Hutt, Mr. F. H., 225

  Hutton, George, 204


  'Imitatio Christi,' the, 96, 97, 302

  Ina, King of the West Saxons, 3

  Inglis, C. B., 108

  Irving (Washington), 'Abbotsford,' 308

  Islington, cattle market at, 164

  Isocrates (1493), 129

  Isted, G., 61


  Jackson, Mr. B. Daydon, 297

  Jackson, 17

  Jackson, Andrew, 232

  Jacobean literature, 301

  James, Haughton, 68

  James I., 20

  James II., 20

  Jameson, Mrs., 271

  Janin, Jules, 286

  Jarvis (J. W.) and Son, 194, 245

  Jeffrey, Edward, 113

  Jerrold, Douglas, 71

  Jersey, Earl of, 56, 133

  Johnson, Dr., 23, 44, 117, 237

  Johnson and Osborne, 192 and _note_

  Johnson, Joseph, 214, 215

  John of Boston, 8, 9

  Johnston, William, 215, 216

  Jolley, Thomas, 143 _note_

  Jones and Co., 180

  Jones, Owen, 116

  Jones, Richard, 191

  Jonson, Ben, 19, 84

  Juvenal and Persius (1469), 131


  Keats, John, 94, 179, 319

  Kempis, Thomas à, 96, 97

  Kettlewell, Robert, 199

  Kidner, Thomas, 100

  King, John, 178

  King, Thomas, 111-113, 178

  King and Lochée, 56, 112

  King of Mansfield Street, 239

  Kirton, Joshua, 212

  Knaptons, the, 214

  Knight, Charles, 116

  Knight, J. P., 117

  Knight, Mr. Joseph, 313, 314

  Knock-outs, 121, 164, 290-292


  Lackington, George, 182, 183

  Lackington, James, 179-183, 245

  Lactantius, 'Opera,' 307

  'Ladies' Library,' the, 265-267

  Lakelands Library, 93

  Lamb, Charles, 76-78, 176, 177, 207, 288-290, 296

  Lamb's 'Beauty and the Beast,' 150

  Lambeth Library, 5, 6

  Landor, Walter Savage, 317

  Lang, Mr. Andrew, 310

  Lang, R., 61

  Langford, auctioneer, 103, 111, 139

  Lansdowne, Marquis of, 58, 108, 111

  Lant, R., 210

  Larking, John W., 94

  Larrons, 'L'Histoire des,' 282

  Laud, Archbishop, 23

  Lauderdale, Duke of, 27, 28, 289

  Law books, printers of, 217

  Lawler, Mr. John, 99, 100, 102, 119, 258

  Lawrence, E. H., 94

  Lazarus, Mrs., 231

  Leacroft, S., 236

  Le Gallienne, Mr. R., 318

  'Legenda Aurea' (1503), 291

  Leigh, George, 103, 104

  Leighton, Mr., 106

  Leland, John, 15

  Lemoine, Henry, 161

  'Leontes,' 66

  Lepruik, Robert, 313

  Lever, Charles, 83

  Lewis, L. A., 223

  Libraries and book-thieves, 284, 285

  Library, the Sunderland, 36-38

  Libri Collection, the, 114, 263, 285

  Lilly, John, 18

  Lilly, Joseph, 74, 244, 245, 301

  Lintot, B., 219

  Lisburne, Lord, 129

  Little Britain, 33, 99, 167-175

  Littleton's 'Tenures,' 217

  Liverpool, Earl of, 117

  Livy, the Sweynheim and Pannartz, 69

  Localities, some book-hunting, 166

  Locke, John, 85, 320

  Locker-Lampson, F., 106, 311-313

  Lodge's 'Rosalynd,' 86

  London House, Aldersgate Street, 39

  Longman and Co., 80, 210

  Longueville, Lord, 31

  Lovelace's 'Lucasta,' 145

  Lowndes, W., 235

  Lowndes's 'Bibliographer's Manual,' 244

  Low, Sampson, and Co., 116, 208

  Loyalty, the 'repository' of, 250

  Ludgate Hill, 215

  Lumley, Lord, 16, 21

  Luttrell, N., 22

  Lydgate's 'Bochas,' 232

  Lydgate's 'Hystory, Sege, and Destruccion of Troye,' 9

  Lysons, D. and S., 110

  Lytton, Lord, 150


  Macaulay, Lord, 71, 149, 202, 228, 229

  Mackenzie, J. Mansfield, 90

  Mackinlay, I., 241

  Macpherson, F., 195

  Macready, W., 117

  Maddison, John, 112

  Magdalen College, 29, 30

  Maitland, Lord, 27

  Malone, E., 41, 43, 67, 108, 238

  Manley, Richard, 215

  Mann, John, 122

  Mansion House, the old, 185, 186

  Manson, J. P., 207

  Manton, Dr. Thomas, 100

  Manuscript, the textual value of a, 128

  Markland, J. H., 61

  Marlowe's 'Doctor Faustus,' 202 _note_

  Marlowe's 'Tragedie of Richard, Duke of York,' 70

  Marriot, Richard, 218

  Marsh, Charles, 232

  Marshall, Frank, 93

  Martial's 'Epigrammata,' 132

  Martyr (Peter), 'De Sacramento Eucharistiæ,' 307

  Mary of Este, 17

  Mary, Queen, 261

  Mason, George, 53

  Mather, Increase, 151

  Mathews, J., 234

  Mathias, 'Pursuits of Literature,' 238

  Matthew of Westminster, 'Flores,' 17

  Matthews, Charles, 74

  Maty, Dr. M., 220

  Mawman, Joseph, 184

  Maximilian, Emperor, 115

  Mayhew, Henry, 161

  Mazarin Bible. _See_ Bible

  Mazzoni, G., 201

  McCarthy, Count, 108

  Mead, Dr. R., 40, 105, 127, 292

  Menken, Mr. E., 205, 206, 282, 315

  Mews Gate, the, 238-240

  Middle Row, Holborn, 194-196

  Middleton, Conyers, 223

  Millan, J., 235

  Millar, Andrew, 235

  Millington, E., 100 _note_, 101 and _note_, 170

  Milton, J., 81, 95

  Milton's 'Comus,' 303

  Milton's 'Eikonoklastes,' 303

  Milton's 'Lycidas,' 303

  Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' 41, 120, 145, 170, 232, 286, 287, 303

  Milton's 'Paradise Regained,' 303

  Mitre Tavern, the, 116, 222

  Modern Collectors (Some), 299-322

  Molini, Mr., 106, 245

  Molini, Peter, 249

  Monasteries, the dissolution of, 13, _et seq._

  Moore, Dr. John, 27 and _note_, 30, 283

  Moore, Tom, 81

  Moorfields, 168, 177-179

  More, Sir Thos., 15, 96, 97

  Morgan, Lady, 270

  Morpeth, Lord, 61

  Moxon and Co., 116

  MSS., the Hamilton, 50

  Muggletonian tracts, 228

  Murray, J., ambassador, 250

  Murray, John of Sacomb, 137, 138

  Murray, Mr. C. F., 320

  Murray, Mr. John, 307, 308

  Musgrave, Dr. S., 250

  Musæus (1494), 130

  'My Novel,' extract from, 201


  Napoleon I., 107

  Napoleon of booksellers, the, 256

  Nash, Tom, 19, 20

  Neligan, Dr., 106

  Nelson, Viscount, 117

  Newbery, John, 213

  New Cut, the, 157

  Newton, Isaac, 85

  Newton, W., 174

  Nicholas de Lira, 8

  Nicol, George, 59, 110, 124, 126, 251, 252

  Noble, Francis, 194

  Noble, Theophilus, 225, 226

  Norgate, Mr. F., 110

  Norman, Mr. Hy., 318

  Nornaville and Fell, 250

  North, Francis, 170

  North, Dr. John, 31, 32

  North, Roger, 32, 170

  Notary, Julian, 211, 291

  _Notes and Queries_, 88

  Nourse, John, 236

  Novimagus, Society of, 83


  Ogilby, David, 196

  Oldys, W., 192, 237

  Orange Street, Red Lion Square, 202

  'Orlando,' 57

  Osborne, Tom, 34, 55, 191-193, 241 _note_

  Ossian's 'Poems,' 229, 230

  Osterley Park Library, 56

  Otridge, W., 236

  Ottley, W. Y., 71

  Ouvry, Frederick, 86, 87

  Ovid (1471), 131

  Oxford, Anne Cecil, Countess of, 265

  Oxford, Books at, 7, 9

  Oxford, Edward, Earl of, 52, 122, 124, 139, 173, 192, 193

  Oxford Street, 199-202


  Pall Mall, 113, 249, 251

  Pamphlets, Dr. Johnson on, 23

  Pamphlet shops, 155

  Papillon, David, 55, 56

  Parker, Archbishop, 'De Antiquitate,' 264

  Parker, Archbishop, 17, 19

  Parker, Mr. R. J., 205

  Parker, John, 249

  Parker, Samuel, 251

  Parr, Catherine, 261

  Parr, Dr., 244

  Parsons the Jesuit, 119

  Passavant, Speyr, 140

  'Pastissier François,' Le, 229

  Paternoster Row, 209, _et seq._

  Paterson, S., 23, 55 _note_, 103, 110, 111

  Patmore, Thomas, 16

  'Paul Pry,' 78

  Payne, James, 241

  Payne, John, and Foss, 239

  Payne, Thomas, 110, 237-240, 252, 306

  Peacham's 'Compleat Gentleman,' 24

  Peacham's 'Valley of Varietie,' 46

  Pellet, Thomas, 105, 155

  Pembroke, Lord, 31, 173

  Penn, W., 115

  Pepys, Samuel, 25, 29, 120, 212, 248

  Perkins, Frederick, 92

  Perkins, Henry, 71, 126, 256

  Perry, James, 66, 74, 80, 126, 133

  Petheram, John, 194

  Phelps, J. D., 61

  Phillipps, Sir Thomas, 87, 242

  Piccadilly, 249, _et seq._

  Pickering, Basil M., 255

  Pickering, W., 253

  Pickering and Chatto, 194, 255

  'Piers Plowman's Vision,' 120, 191

  Piggott, J. H. Smyth, 71

  'Pilgrim's Progress.' _See_ Bunyan

  Pindar, Elizabeth, 267, 268

  Pinelli, M., 111, 249

  Pitt, Moses, 100

  Plato, 130

  Pliny, 'Historia Naturalis,' 131

  Poetry, old English, 145

  Poet's Gallery, the, 116, 222

  Ponder, Nathaniel, 183

  'Pontevallo,' 69

  Ponton, T., 61

  Pope, Alexander, 44, 151, 230, 308, 311

  Porson, 238

  Pote, J., 236

  Poultry, the, 183

  Powell, W., 217

  Praed, W. M., 250

  Prayer Books, 87, 302

  Price, the highest paid for a book, 126

  Price's 'Historiæ Britannicæ,' 120, 121

  Pridden, John, 215

  Prince, J. H., 194

  'Prospero,' 67

  Psalmorum Codex, 126, 127

  Pulteney, Sir James, 117

  Purcell, of Red Lion Passage, 165

  Purcell's 'Orpheus Britannicus,' 35

  Purchas, 'His Pilgrims,' 118, 120, 234

  Puritan divines, books of, 119

  Puttenham's 'Art of English Poesie,' 145

  Puttick and Simpson, 112, 113-115

  Pye, John, stationer, 10

  Pynson, R., 217, 218, 301


  Quakers, the bibliographer of, 189

  Quaritch, Mr. B., 106, 253, 255-258, 261, 280

  Queensberry, Duke of, 108


  Rabelais, François, 314

  Railton, Mr., 106

  Raleigh's 'Prerogative of Parliaments,' 119

  Ramirez, Jose F., 115

  Rastell's 'Pastyme of the People,' 207

  Ratcliffe, John, 132

  Rawlinson, T. and R., 39, 40, 122, 136, 213, 283

  Reade, Charles, 282

  Reader, Mr. A., 202

  Redman, R., 217, 218

  Reed, Isaac, 42, 112, 145

  Reeves and Turner, 226

  Reeves, Mr. W., 106, 227

  Rewiczki, Count, 51

  Reynolds, Sir J., 113

  Richard of Peterborough, 4

  Richard III., 10

  Richardson's 'Remarks on Paradise Lost,' 170

  Richmond, Margaret, Countess of, 261

  Ridgway, James, 250

  Ridler, W., 230

  'Rig,' a bookseller's, 101

  Rikke, R., 208

  Rimbault, E. F., 194

  Rimell, Mr. J., 106, 206

  Ritson, Joseph, 108

  Rivington and Cochrane, 241

  Rivington, F. C., 213

  Robins, 113

  'Robinson Crusoe,' 89

  Robinson, George, 216

  Robinson's 'Handefull of Pleasant Delites,' 145

  Robson, James, 249, 250

  Robson, Mr., 106

  Roche, Mr. J., 106, 206

  Rodd, Thomas, 74, 75, 242

  Rogers, Samuel, 80-82, 87

  Roper, Abel, 219

  Rosebery, Earl of, 304

  Rossetti, D. G., 317

  Rowfant Library, the, 311

  Rowlandson, Thomas, 108

  Rowsell, Joel, 245

  Roxburghe Club, the, 61-64, 299, _et seq._

  Roxburghe, John, Duke of, 52, 53, 124, 141

  Rubric posts, 176 and _note_, 237

  Ruskin, Mr. John, 279

  Rylands, Mrs., 50, 146, 270, 271, 272

  Rymer's 'Foedera,' 8


  Sacheverell, Dr. Henry, 251

  Sala, Mr. G. A., 150, 157

  Sainte-Beuve's 'Livre d'Amour,' 315

  Salisbury, Mr. J., 211

  Salisbury, Marquis of, 264, 306

  Salkeld, Mr. John, 202, 203

  Salmon, Dr., 31

  Salting, Mr. G., 320

  Sancho, W., 240

  Sandars, Mr. S., 320

  Sandell and Smith, 187

  Sanderson, Bishop, 171

  Saunders, Robert, 116

  Savage, 'Author to Let,' 239

  Saville, Sir Henry, 25, 283

  Scarborough, Sir Charles, 37

  Scotland Yard, 113

  Scott, Dr. John, 194

  Scott, R., 120, 173

  Scott's, Sir Walter, MSS., 87, 89, 290, 308

  Scott's 'Vision of Don Roderick,' 150

  Scotus Erigena, 3

  Scriptorium, 2

  Seile, Henry, 24

  Selden, John, 23, 30

  Selsey, Lord, 133

  Seneca, 'Tragoediæ' (1475), 131

  Severne, F. E., 57

  Sewell, John, 176 _note_, 186

  Shakespeare, W., 19, 70, 72, 74, 75, 91, 92, 93, 141-143
    First Folio (1623), 42, 72, 87, 92, 95, 114, 141, 222, 291, 303,
        311, 322
    Second Folio (1632), 42, 75, 87, 95, 120, 141-143, 221, 303
    Third Folio (1664), 42, 87, 95, 141-143, 303
    Fourth Folio (1685), 42, 87, 95, 141-143, 221, 303
    Quarto editions, 72, 90, 92, 93, 311
      'Hamlet,' 143
      '2 Henry IV.,' 92, 143
      'Henry V.,' 92, 143, 301
      'Henry VI.,' 143
      'Lear,' 95, 143, 211
      'Love's Labour Lost,' 93, 143
      'Merchant of Venice,' 92, 93 (_bis_), 95, 143, 211, 301
      'Merry Wives of Windsor,' 93, 143, 211, 301
      'Midsummer Night's Dream,' 70, 95, 143, 308
      'Much Ado About Nothing,' 93, 143
      'Othello,' 143, 301
      'Pericles,' 143, 301
      'Poems,' 93, 143
      'Rape of Lucrece,' 69, 93, 143, 211
      'Richard II.,' 143, 211, 301
      'Richard III.,' 143, 211, 301
      'Romeo and Juliet,' 92, 143, 217 _note_, 301
      'Sonnets,' 70, 143 and _note_
      'Titus Andronicus,' 301
      'Troilus and Cressida,' 143, 211
      'Venus and Adonis,' 143  and _note_, 211

  Shandy, Mr., 152

  Shattock, Mr. T. F., 320

  Shelburne, Earl of, 111

  Sheldon, Ralph, 291

  Shelley, P. B., 316

  Shelley's copy of Ossian's Poems, 229

  Shenstone, W., 237

  Sheridan, R. B., 85

  Sherley's 'Wits New Dyall,' 167

  Shoreditch, 155

  Shorter, Mr. C. K., 317, 318

  Shropshire, Walter, 251

  Sidney's 'Arcadia,' 89

  Silius Italicus, 131

  Simpson, Mr. W., 114

  Singer, S. W., 71

  Skeat, of King William Street, 287

  Slater, Mr. J. H., 150

  Slater, Mr. Walter, 316, 317

  Sloane, Sir Hans, 30, 31, 172

  Smith, Horace, 78, 80

  Smith's, Captain John, 'History of Virginia,' 20

  Smith, Joseph, English Consul, 41, 250

  Smith, Joseph, bookseller, 187

  Smith, or Smyth, Richard, 32, 33

  Smollett, Tobias, 44

  Smyth, Sir Thomas, 119

  Snowden, Mr. G. S., 106

  'Snuffy Davy,' 135

  Soho, 207

  Solly, Edward, 46, 88, 202

  Somers, Lord, 31, 172

  Somerset, Duke of, 284

  Sophocles (1502), 129

  Sotheby, John, 103, 104

  Sotheby, Samuel, 103, 104

  Sotheby, S. Leigh, 104, 105

  Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, 103-108, and _passim_

  Sotheran and Co., Messrs., 97, 233, 246, 272, 281

  Sotheran, Mr. H., 106

  Southampton Row, 314

  Southey, Robert, 76, 308

  _Spectator_, the, 175, 265

  Spelman, Edward, 250

  Spelman, Sir Henry, 21

  Spence, Joseph, 220

  Spencer, Earl, 50-52, 53, 61, 109, 124, 238, 272

  Spencer, W. T., 205

  Spenser's 'Faërie Queene,' 87, 145

  Spenser, E., 35

  Spon, of Cheapside, 184

  St. Albans, Abbot of, 7

  St. Albans, books printed at, 136, 137, 268, 301

  St. Alban's Tavern, 61

  St. Augustine, 'De Arte Predicandi,' 302

  St. Augustine, 'De Civitate Dei,' 307, 308

  St. Bernard's Seal, 43

  St. Dunstan, 3

  St. Francis, 6

  St. Paul's Cathedral, 4

  St. Paul's Churchyard, 153, 168, 208-216

  Stanley, Colonel, 110, 239

  Staple Inn, 42

  Stapleton, A. G., 252

  Stark, J. M., 245

  Steele, Richard, 84, 265

  Steevens, George, 42, 112, 220, 238

  Stephens, J., 224

  Sterne, L., 236

  Stevens, Henry, 106, 115

  Stewart, Charles J., 245, 268

  Stewart, founder of Puttick's, 112, 114

  Stibbs, E. W., 106, 200

  Stock, Mr. Elliot, 96, 187

  Stormont, Lord, 238

  Stow's 'Survey,' 8

  Strand, the, 153, 223-235

  Strange, John, 111

  Strickland, Agnes, 270

  Suckling and Galloway, 234

  Sullivan, Sir E., 92, 93

  Sunderland Library sale, 114, 256

  Sunderland, Earl of, 31, 36, 52, 124, 173

  Sunderlin, Lord, 68

  Sussex, Duke of, 109, 126, 264

  Sutton, Henry, 210

  Swift, Jonathan, 85, 172, 176

  Swift, MS. of Scott's 'Life' of, 87

  Sydenham Tusculum, Hill's, 79

  Sydney, Sir Robert, 142

  Sykes, Lady Mark, 270

  Sykes, Sir M. M., 58, 61 _note_, 110, 310

  Syston Park Library, 126


  Talleyrand, Prince, 108

  Taylor, Watson, 133

  Taylor, William, 210

  Tebbs, Mr. H. V., 320

  Tegg, Thomas, 186

  Temple Bar, 223

  'Temple of the Muses,' the, 182

  Tenison, Archbishop, 39

  Testament. _See_ Bible

  Thackeray, W. M., 83

  Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, 3

  Theocritus (1495), 130

  Thompson, Mr. H. Yates, 320

  Thoms, W. J., 88, 156, 202, 228

  Thoresby, Ralph, 178, 238

  Thorpe, Thomas, 64 and _note_, 241, 242, 250

  Thorold, Sir John, 126

  Thurlow, Lord, 112

  Tilt, Charles, 221, 253

  Tisdale, John, 191

  Tite, Sir William, 74, 256

  Tobin, Sir J., 109

  Tomes, H., 191

  'Tom Folio,' 39

  Tom's Coffee-house, 102

  Tonson, Jacob, 35, 192, 219, 234

  Tooke, Benjamin, 219

  Tooke, John Horne, 54, 112

  Toovey, B., 249

  Toovey, J., 106, 142, 253-255, 322

  Tottell, R., 217 and _note_

  Towneley, J., 57, 61, 110, 239

  Townsend, Marquis of, 108

  Tradescant, Mrs., 18

  Tregaskis, Mr. and Mrs., 204, 205

  Triphook, R., 183, 268

  Truelove, E., 200

  Turberville's 'Epitaphs,' 210

  Turnbull, Mr. E., 201, 202

  Turner, Dawson, 114

  Turner, R. S., 89

  Turnstiles, Holborn, 202-204

  Tunstall, James, 219

  Tusser's 'Good Husbandry,' 232

  Tyndale, John, 16

  Tyndale's 'Practyse of Prelates,' 119

  Tyrill, Sir T., 26

  Tyson, Dr. E., 176

  Tyssen, Samuel, 108, 111


  Udal, Nicholas, 74

  Upcott, W., 27, 70

  Usher, Archbishop, 26

  Usher, Bishop, 212

  Utterson, E. V., 61

  Uvedale, Robert, 236


  Vaillant, Paul, 240

  Valdarfer Boccaccio, the, 52, 61, 93, 123-125

  Valerius Maximus (1471), 131

  Valesius, 25

  Van de Weyer, Col. V. W. Bates, 309

  Vérard, Antoine, 13

  Vernor and Hood, 184

  Vespucci, 'Mundus Novus,' 94

  Vossius, Isaac 25


  Wakefield, 238

  Walford, Cornelius, 88, 151, 152

  Walford, Mr. E., 106

  Walker, John, 112, 113

  Wallden, a Carmelite Friar, 8

  Waller, Mr. John, 281

  Walpole, Horace, 284, 292

  Walter, John, of the _Times_, 235

  Walton Hall library, 93

  Walton, Izaak, 35, 36, 85, 171

  Walton's 'Compleat Angler,' 144, 145, 218, 234, 322

  Wanley, Humfrey, 34, 38, 122

  Ward, Mr. W., 106

  Wardour Street, 206

  Warde, Roger, 191

  Ware, Richard, 215

  Warner's 'Syrinx' (1597), 288

  Warwick, Earl of, 106

  Waterton, E., 96, 97

  Watson, Dr. T., 100

  Weskett, 'On Insurances,' 152

  Wesley, Charles, 35

  Wesley and Sons, 234

  West, James, 59, 60, 111, 179

  Westell, Mr. J., 106, 200, 201

  Westminster Hall, 247-249

  Westmoreland, Countess of, 9, 260

  Wheare's 'Method and Order of Reading Histories,' 85

  Wheatley, Benjamin, 69, 114

  Wheatley, Mr. H. B., 100 _note_, 293

  Wheldon, John, 211

  Whethamstede, 10

  Whiston, John, 103, 219

  Whitechapel, 155, 187, 188

  White, Benjamin (Sr. and Jr.), 219-221

  White, Gilbert, 221

  White, John, 221

  White, Joseph, 194

  White Knights Library, 109

  Whittington, Sir Richard, 8

  Whytforde's 'Lyfe of Perfection,' 309

  Wilbraham, R., 61

  Wilcox, Thomas, 103

  Wilkes, John, 54, 55, 108, 183, 311

  Wilkinson, John, 105

  Williams, Dr. David, 39

  Willis, G., 246

  Willoughby, Lord, 31, 193

  Willoughby, Sir H., 84

  Wills, John, 219

  Wilson's 'Art of Logic,' 74

  Wimpole Library, the, 89, 90

  Winchelsea, Earl of, 173

  Wingrave, F., 236

  Winstanley's 'Views of Audley End,' 292

  Wise, Mr. T. J., 316, 317

  Wodhull, Michael, 57, 58, 128

  Women as book-collectors, 259-273

  Women as book-thieves, 279-280, 285

  Wood, Anthony à, 8, 21, 32

  Wordsworth, W., 76, 78

  Worsley, Dr. B., 100, 213

  Wulfseg, Bishop of London, 3

  Wyndham, 238

  Wynkyn de Worde, 54, 111, 119, 216, 301, 306


  Yates's 'Castell of Courtesie,' 222

  York, Duke of, 108


  Zouche, Lord, 304

[Illustration]


_Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row, London._


[Illustration:

     '_Must I, as a wit with learned air,
      Like Doctor Dewlap, to Tom Payne's repair?_']




_Uniform with 'The Book-Hunter in London.'_


THE BOOK-HUNTER IN PARIS.

BEING

Studies Among the Bookstalls of the Quays.

By OCTAVE UZANNE.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY AUGUSTINE BIRRELL,
AUTHOR OF 'OBITER DICTA,' 'RES JUDICATÆ,' ETC.

_AND 144 CHARACTERISTIC ILLUSTRATIONS INTERSPERSED IN THE TEXT_.


[Illustration]

EVERY bibliophile who by chance finds himself in Paris, whether on
urgent affairs or on pleasure intent, invariably manages to visit that
richest of hunting-grounds, the book-lined quays, where, perhaps, more
unexpected treasures have been picked up than in any other city of
Europe. It is of this happy hunting-ground and those who haunt it--the
book-hunters and the bookstall-keepers; the books they buy and the books
they sell; whence they come and whither they go; the finds, the losses,
the disappointments, and red-letter days--that M. Uzanne writes in this
attractive volume, in that felicitous and suggestive manner which has
made him so well known in present-day literature.


Opinions of the Press on 'The Book-Hunter in Paris.'

'A very interesting book. Mr. Birrell's introduction is a pleasant and
useful explanation of the volume, which is presented in a form fully
deserving of its literary merits.'--_Times._

'M. Uzanne's chapters are full of curious information, which will have
special attraction for those English book-hunters to whom Paris is
unknown. The style is agreeably anecdotic, and the numerous woodcuts are
quaint and graphic.'--_Globe._

'With real regret we lay down so charmingly written a volume, and it is
with no small satisfaction that we note the publisher's announcement
that a companion volume on "The Book-Hunter in London" will shortly be
issued.'--_St. James's Budget._

'M. Uzanne's book is delightful, with never a heavy touch, but crammed
with quaint traditions, humorous characteristics, charming
gossip.'--_Graphic._

'M. Uzanne sets forth with a good deal of pathos, happily leavened with
humour, the history, past and present, of the stall-keepers and the
quays of the Seine, in whose trays many a notable _trouvaille_ has been
made in other times.'--_Pall Mall Gazette._

'The interest of the book is heightened by the characteristic vignettes
which are interwoven with the text on almost every other page.'--_The
Standard._

'Lightly does he carry his learning and brightly does he sketch the
bookmen and their riverside market. Of present interest to all
book-lovers are his piquant contrasts of the old order and the
new.'--_Saturday Review._

'To collectors the book will appeal with special force, but the general
reader, if he be gifted with ordinary intelligence, will also enjoy it.
It is not dry; in fact, to use the familiar expression, it is "as
interesting as a novel."'--_Publishers' Circular._

'The book is full of stories of the characteristics of the fraternity,
anecdotes, and biographical sketches of past stall-keepers and their
most famous patrons.'--_Daily Graphic._

'Everybody knows M. Uzanne's pleasant, garrulous style--how he takes his
readers into his confidence, how he spins phrases lovingly, and always
keeps you in good spirits. He was just the man to write such a
book.'--_Bookman._

'The work is always learned, and (what is not so easy) always light.
Everybody who is the least of a book-hunter ought to read it at once, or
rather, ought to hunt for it first; and then, to show that it is a
better sort of book than many that are hunted, read it.'--_Scotsman._

[Illustration]




TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:


Characters superscripted in the original are inclosed in {} brackets.

Variations in spelling have been left as in the original.  Examples
include the following:

     Crede              Creede
     Creside            Cressida
     Faerie             Faërie
     Magliabecchi       Magliabechi
     Polychronicon      Policronicon
     Schoeffer's        Schoëffer          Schoeffer with an oe ligature
     Sweynheim          Sweynheym
     Troilus            Troylus
     Zarothum           Zarothus

The following words used an oe ligature in the original:

     d'oeuvre
     Foedera
     Oeconomiques
     oeuvre             Oeuvres
     Phoebum
     Phoenix
     Schoeffer
     Tragoedie

The following words appear with and without hyphens. They have been left
as in the original.

     book-buyer         bookbuyer
     book-buying        bookbuying
     book-case          bookcase
     book-plate         bookplate
     book-selling       bookselling
     Coffee-house       Coffeehouse
     sale-room          saleroom
     waste-paper        wastepaper

The following corrections have been made to the text:

     page xiv: Purcell (p. 165)[original has 164]

     page xv: necessarily a learned man.[original is missing
     period]

     page 24: 1 Peers pennylesse supplication[original has
     supplicati[=o] to indicate there wasn't room for the final n]

         [=o] is equivalent to o with a macron over it

     page 33: the '[opening quote is missing in original]Godfrey of
     Bulloigne' selling for 18s.

     page 40: early age of forty-four[original has fourty-four]

     page 74: duplicate of my wooden leg."[original has extraneous
     single quote]

     page 81: the MSS. of Gray, in their perfect
     calligraphy[original has caligraphy]

     page 142: Rowfant[original has Rowfont] Library

     page 146: where a sale of books was in progress[original has
     progess]

     page 147: on the Banks of Lake Liman, near Geneva,"[ending
     quotation mark missing in original]

     page 194: For Billingsgate, quit Flexney, and be wise.'[ending
     quotation mark missing in original]

     page 232: like another Magliabecchi,[removed extraneous
     quotation mark after Magliabecchi]

     page 260: Countess of Westmoreland[original has Westmorland]

     page 264: We give facsimiles[original has facsimilies]

     page 294: '[quotation mark missing in original]Jokely, very
     interesting

     page 295: 'The Rose and the Ring by R. Browing.'[original has
     comma]

     page 303: catalogue raisonné[original has raisonnée]

     page 310: 'The Death Wake' (1831),[original has period]

     page 322: Princess Marie Liechtenstein[original has
     Leichtenstein]

     page 323: Arch, J. and A.[original has J.]

     page 323: Bannatyne[original has Bannantyne] Club, the

     page 324: under Bibles and New Testaments--

       Fust and Schoeffer (1462) was out of alphabetical order in
           the original
       in the Gutenberg sub-entry, the pages numbers were out of
           order in the original

     page 324: Brooke[original has Brook], Lord Warwick, 100

     page 325: under Caxton--

       'Book of Good Manners,'[comma missing in original]
       Godfrey of Bulloigne[original has Bulloyne]
       Higden's 'Polychronicon[original has Polycronicon]
       History of Blanchardyn[original has Blanchardin]
       'Troylus and Creside,'[ending quote missing in original and
           spelling is Cressid]
       Virgil's 'Æneid'[original has Ænid]

     page 326: Drummond's 'Forth[original has Fourth] Fasting,' 86

     page 327: Finsbury Square, 177, 179-183[removed extraneous
     period]

     page 327: Glashier,[comma missing in original] George, 202

     page 327: Guilford[original has Guildford], Earl of

     page 327: Guilford[original has Guildford], Francis, Baron

     page 328: Johnson, Joseph[original has John], 214, 215

     page 328: Johnston[original has Johnstone], William

     page 328: Kempis, Thomas à[original has á]

     page 330: Nornaville[original has Nornanville] and Fell

     page 330: Nourse[original has Nowise], John, 236

     page 331: Rewiczki[original has Rewicski], Count

     page 331: Loyalty[original has Royalty--entry has been moved
     to maintain alphabetical order], the 'repository' of, 250

     page 332: Stibbs[original has Stibbes], E. W.

     page 332: Thackeray, W. M., 83[out of alphabetical order in
     original]

     page 332: Tyndale[original has Tyndall], John, 16

     page 332: Tyson, Dr. E., 176[out of alphabetical order in
     original]

     page 333: Vérard[original has Verard], Antoine

     page 333: entries for Walford, Cornelius, Walford, Mr. E.,
     Walker, John, Warde, Roger, and Ward, Mr. W., were out of
     alphabetical order in the original

     page 333: Weskett,[comma missing in original] 'On Insurances,'
     151

In the index on page 328, there is an entry for Thomas à Kempis. His
name is not mentioned in the book, but he is the author of "Imitatio
Christi" which is discussed in the text on the referenced pages.

In the index, many of the page references were incorrect. Corrections
have been made as indicated in the following table.

                                     Original             Correct
  Entry                                Page #               Page #

  Aldine editions,                   128-131              129-131
  Aldus,                             128                  129
  Alfred,                              2                    3
  Anacreon, Stephen edition,         128                  129
  Anthologia Græca' (1494),          129                  130
  Archaica Club,                      78                   79
  'Aristophanes' (1498),             128                  129
  Aristotle (1495-98),               129                  130
  Askew Sale, the,                   127, et seq.         128, et seq.

  Bannatyne Club, the,                62                   62 note
  Baptist Library at Bristol,        137                  138
  Barbican, the,                     175, 176             176, 177
  Batemans of Little Britain,        170                  171
  Becket, Thomas,                    175 note             176 note
  Bernard, Dr. Francis,              131                  132
  Bibles and New Testaments
    Coverdale's (1535),              113                  138
    Græca Septuaginta,               192                  192 note
    St. Jerome's MS.,                139, 140             140
  Bishopsgate Churchyard,            160                  161
  Black-letter books,                135                  136
  Blandford, Marquis of,              61                   61 note
  Bloomfield, R.,                    153                  154
  'Boke of St. Albans,'              135, 136             136
  Book-ghouls,                       159                  160
  Bookstalls and bookstalling,       148-166              149-167
  Brabourne, Lord,                   106                  107
  Britten, Mr. James,                150                  151
  Britton, Thomas,                   171, 172             172, 173
  Brown, 'Old,'                      156                  157
  Bruscambille on 'Long Noses,'      151                  152
  Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress,'     144, 145             145, 146
  Burdett-Coutts, Baroness,          140, 141             141, 142
  Butterworth, Henry,                217                  217 note


  Campbell, Mr. Dykes,               106                  107
  Caxton, W.                         131                  132
    'Arthur, King,'                  132                  133
    'Book called Cathon,'            131, 132             132, 133
    'Book of Chivalry,'              135                  136
    'Chastising of God's Children,'  131                  132
    Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales,'    135                  136
    'Chronicles of England,'         131, 132             132, 133
    Cicero ('De Senectute'), 'Of Old
        Age,'                         90, 131, 132        132, 133
    'Dictes and Sayings,'            131                  132
    'Doctrinal of Sapience,'         131, 132             132, 133
    'Game and Playe of Chesse,'      131, 132, 134        132, 133, 135
    'Godfrey of Bulloigne,'          131                  132
    'Golden Legend,'                 132                  133
    Gower's 'Confessio Amantis,'     132                  133
    Higden's 'Description of
        Britayn'                     132                   ?
    Higden's 'Polychronicon,'         80                   89
    'Historyes of Troy,'             131                  132
    'History of Blanchardyn and
        Eglantine,'                  132                  133
    'History of Jason,'              131, 132             132, 133
    'Mirrour of the World,'          132                  133
    Russell's 'Propositio,'          133                  134
    'Troylus and Creside,'           132                  133
    Virgil's 'Æneid,'                132                  133
  Caxton, the highest paid for a,    132                  133
  Caxtons, the Althorp,              133                  134
  Chained books at Hereford,         274                   ?
  Chandler, Dr.,                     287                  289
  Clarke, W.,                        134                  135

  Daniel, G.,                        140-142              141-143
  Daniell, Mr. E.,                   106                  107
  Day's circulating library,         207, 208             208
  Defoe, Daniel,                     155                  156
  Devonshire, Dukes of,    }          61, 132              61 note, 133
                           }         140, 141, 172        141, 142, 173
  Diodorus Siculus (1539),           129                  130
  Dobell, Mr. B.,                    106                  107
  Dorset, Earl of,                   169                  170
  Drayton, M.,                       157                  158
  Duck Lane,                         174, 175             175, 176
  Duke Street, Little Britain,       174, 175             175, 176

  East End, book-hunting in,         154, et seq.         155, et seq.
  Editiones Principes,               127-131              128-131
  Ellis, Mr. G. I.,                  106                  107
  Elyot's 'Castell of Helth,'        165                  166
  Euripides (1503),                  128                  129
  Exeter 'Change,                    153, 154             154, 155
  Extra-illustrating,                164                  165

  Farringdon Road,                   157, 158             158, 159
  Finsbury Square,                   177                  178
  Foote, Samuel,                     162                  163
  Franklin, B.,                      174                  175
  Fuller's 'David's Hainous Sinne,'  150                  151
  Funnibus, L.,                      146                  147

  Garnett, Dr. R.,                   165                  166
  Garth, Samuel,                     175                  176
  George III.,                       129, 134, 140        130, 135, 141
  Gifford, Dr.,                      138, 139             139, 140
  Glasse's 'Art of Cookery,'         149                  150
  Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield,'  145                  146
  Gomme, Mr. G. L.,                  150                  151
  Grangerizing,                      164                  165
  Gray's MSS.,                       145                  146
  Gwillim's 'Display of Heraldry,'   155                  156

  Harleian Library, The,             193                  192
  Harvey, Mr. F.,                    164                  165
  Harwood, Dr.,                      127-130              128-131
  Hatchards,                         253, 254             252-254
  Heliconia Club,                     78                   79
  Herodotus (1502),                  128                  129
  Hindley, Mr. C.,                   106                  107
  Hodge, Mr. E. Grose,               106                  107
  Hodgson and Co.,                   145, 161-163         146, 162-164
  Holford, Captain,                  145                  146
  Holywell Street,                   152, 153             153, 154
  Homer, the Foulis edition,         128                  129
  Horace, editio princeps,           129                  130
  Hunter, Mr.,                       129                  130
  Hunt, Leigh,                       148                  149

  Islington, cattle market at,       163                  164
  Isocrates (1493),                  128                  129

  Jeffrey, Edward,                   112                  113
  Jersey, Earl of,                   132                  133
  Johnson, Dr.,                      257                  237
  Jolley, Thomas,                    142 note             143 note
  Juvenal and Persius (1469),        130                  131

  King, John,                        177                  178
  King, Thomas,                      177                  178
  Knock-outs,                        163                  164

  Lamb, Charles,                     175, 176             176, 177
  Lamb's 'Beauty and the Beast,'     149                  150
  Langford, auctioneer,              138                  139
  Leighton, Mr.,                     106                  107
  Lemoine, Henry,                    160                  161
  Lisburne, Lord,                    128                  129
  Locker-Lampson, F.,                106                  107
  London House, Aldersgate Street,    40                   39
  Longman and Co.,                    79, 80               80
  Lovelace's 'Lucasta,'              144                  145
  Lytton, Lord,                      149                  150

  Macaulay, Lord,                    148                  149
  Manuscript, the textual value
      of a,                          127                  128
  Martial's 'Epigrammata,'           131                  132
  Mather, Increase,                  150                  151
  Mayhew, Henry,                     160                  161
  Millington, E.                     169                  170
  Milton's 'Paradise Lost,'          144, 169             145, 170
  Molini, Mr.,                       106                  107
  Moorfields,                        167, 176-179         168, 177-179
  Murray, John of Sacomb,            137, 138             138, 139
  Musæus (1494),                     129                  130

  Neligan, Dr.,                      106                  107
  New Cut, the,                      156, 157             157
  Newton, W.,                        173                  174
  Nicol, George,                     127                  126
  North, Francis,                    169                  170
  North, Roger,                      169                  170
  Novimagus, Society of,              82                   83

  Ovid (1471),                       130                  131
  Oxford, Edward, Earl of,           138, 172             139, 173

  Pamphlet shops,                    154                  155
  Passavant, Speyr,                  139                  140
  Pellet, Thomas,                    154                  155
  Pembroke, Lord,                    172                  173
  Pepys, Samuel,                     249                  248
  Perry, James,                      132                  133
  Plato,                             129                  130
  Pliny, 'Historia Naturalis,'       130                  131
  Poetry, old English,               144                  145
  Pope, Alexander,                   150                  151
  Purcell, of Red Lion Passage,      164                  165
  Puttenham's 'Art of English
      Poesie,'                       144                  145

  Quaritch, Mr. B.,                  106, 281             107, 280

  Railton, Mr.,                      106                  107
  Ratcliffe, John,                   131                  132
  Rawlinson, T. and R.,              135                  136
  Reed, Isaac,                       144                  145
  Reeves, Mr. W.,                    106                  107
  Richardson's 'Remarks on Paradise
      Lost,'                         169                  170
  Rimell, Mr. J.,                    106                  107
  Robinson's 'Handefull of Pleasant
      Delites,'                      144                  145
  Robson, Mr.,                       106                  107
  Roche, Mr. J.,                     106                  107
  Rogers, Samuel,                     79-82                80-82
  Roxburghe, John, Duke of,          140                  141
  Rubric posts,                      175                  176
  Rylands, Mrs.,                     145                  146

  Sacheverell, Dr. Henry,            257                  251
  Sala, Mr. G. A.,                   149, 156             150, 157
  Salisbury, Mr. J.,                 209, 211             211
  Sanderson, Bishop,                 170                  171
  Scott, R.,                         172                  173
  Scott's 'Vision of Don Roderick,'  149                  150
  Scriptorium,                         1, 2                 2
  Selsey, Lord,                      132                  133
  Seneca, 'Tragoediæ' (1475),        130                  131
  Sewell, John,                      175                  176 note
  Shakespeare, W.,                   140-142              141-143
    First Folio (1623),              140                  141
    Second Folio (1632),             140-142              141-143
    Third Folio (1664),              140-142              141-143
    Fourth Folio (1685),             140-142              141-143
    Quarto editions
      'Hamlet,'                      142                  143
      '2 Henry IV.,'                 142                  143
      'Henry V.,'                    142                  143
      'Henry VI.,'                   142                  143
      'Lear,'                        142                  143
      'Love's Labour Lost,'          142                  143
      'Merchant of Venice,'          142                  143
      'Merry Wives of Windsor,       142                  143
      'Midsummer Night's Dream'      142                  143
      'Much Ado About Nothing,'      142                  143
      'Othello,'                     142                  143
      'Pericles,'                    142                  143
      'Poems,'                       142                  143
      'Rape of Lucrece,'             142                  143
      'Richard II.,'                 142                  143
      'Richard III.,'                142                  143
      'Romeo and Juliet,'            142                  143
      'Sonnets,'                     142, 143 note        143 and note
      'Troilus and Cressida,'        142                  143
      'Venus and Adonis,'            142, 143 note        143 and note
  Shandy, Mr.,                       151                  152
  Sherley's 'Wits New Dyall,'        166                  167
  Shoreditch,                        154                  155
  Silius Italicus,                   130                  131
  Slater, Mr. J. H.,                 149                  150
  Sloane, Sir Hans,                  171                  172
  'Snuffy Davy,'                     134                  135
  Solly, Edward,                      47                   46
  Somers, Lord,                      171                  172
  Snowden, Mr. G. S.,                106                  107
  Sophocles (1502),                  128                  129
  Sotheran, Mr. H.,                  106                  107
  Spectator, the,                    174                  175
  Spenser's 'Faërie Queene,'         144                  145
  St. Albans, books printed at,      135, 136             136, 137
  St. Paul's Churchyard,             152                  153
  Stevens, Henry,                    106                  107
  Staple Inn,                         43                   42
  Stibbs, E. W.,                     106                  107
  Strand, the,                       152                  153
  Sunderland, Earl of,               172                  173
  Swift, Jonathan,                   171, 175             172, 176
  Sydenham Tusculum, Hill's,          78                   79
  Sydney, Sir Robert,                141                  142
  Sykes, Sir M. M.,                   61                   61 note

  Taylor, Watson,                    132                  133
  Theocritus (1495),                 129                  130
  Thoms, W. J.,                      155, 156             156
  Thoresby, Ralph,                   177                  178
  Toovey, J.,                        106, 141, 145        107, 142
  Tyson, Dr. E.,                     175                  176

  Valerius Maximus (1471),           130                  131
  Vérard, Antoine,                    12                   13

  Walford, Mr. E.,                   106                  107
  Walton, Izaak,                     170                  171
  Walton's 'Compleat Angler,'        143, 144             144, 145
  Walford, Cornelius,                150, 151             151, 152
  Walker, John,                      114                  113
  Ward, Mr. W.,                      106                  107
  Warwick, Earl of,                  106                  107
  Weskett, 'On Insurances,'          151                  152
  Westell, Mr. J.,                   106                  107
  Whitechapel,                       154                  155
  Winchelsea, Earl of,               172                  173
  Women as book-thieves,             278-280              279-280
  Wynkyn de Worde,                   118                  111

Ellipsis are represented as in the original.





End of Project Gutenberg's The Book-Hunter in London, by William Roberts